Studies in ichthyology Author:David Starr Jordan Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A MONOGRAPHIC REVIEW OF THE FAMILY OF ATHERINID/E OR SILVERSIDES By David Starr Jordan And Carl Leavitt Hubbs The present paper contains a review of the ge... more »nera, with an annotated list of the known species, of the fishes of the family Atherinid.e, known as "Silversides" in the eastern United States; as "Hardyheads" in Australia; as "Joel," "Sauclet," etc., in France; "Epseto" and "Lattarina" in Italy, and throughout Latin America as "Fishes of the King" (Pesce-re, Peixe-rei, Pexerey, Pescado del Rey, Peje-rei, Peje-rey, Pejerrey). The majority of the species are tropical, though many are found within the temperate zones. Some are marine living along sandy shores, some in the sluggish estuaries of rivers, a few in mountain torrents, or lakes; seldom in muddy water. None are known from the depths of the ocean: they are closely confined everywhere, both to the surface and to the shoreline The species are usually small, the tropical ones almost uniformly so, attaining a length of from two to six inches; in the temperate regions of the New World some reach a length of between one and two feet. For more than seventy-five years after the tenth edition of the Systema Natures was published, Atherina remained the only named genus of its group. The first generic divisions were made by Bonaparte in 1837; by Swainson, in 1839; by Bleeker, in 1853; and by Girard, in 1854. In his Catalogue, however, Giinther (1861) recognized but two genera, Atherina and an unnatural assemblage for which he chose the name Atherinichthys. Since that time, however, numerous genera have been described. In the present review, we accept 38 genera and two subgenera as valid. Similarly most of the species remained long unknown. Linnaeus knew but one, Atherina Hepsetus. Valenciennes in 1835 listed 28 species; Gi...« less