Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/463

Rh sometimes turn from Philip the theorist to Philip the mathematician. Figures will doubtless show the bankruptcy of much apparently joint-stock theory, and we may indeed rejoice in the prospect of such a result.

acquisition of Porto Rico by the United States has been already followed by scientific results of the greatest interest to zoologists, and we may confidently expect the same biological enterprise to be devoted to the study of the Cuban fauna. The present volume is devoted to the fishes of Porto Rico, of which 291 species are now enumerated. Of these no fewer than 263 were obtained by the 'Fish Hawk' expedition, and thirty-three of them proved to be new species. All the genera and species are fully described, and very many figured; while forty-nine coloured plates are added, which alone are a revelation to those who have never seen the gorgeous hues of, say, the fishes of a coral-reef. These figures may be accepted as true in colouration, for most of them "were painted on board the 'Fish Hawk,' the fish being placed in an aquarium as soon as caught, and the life colors gotten before they had undergone any appreciable change." This, of course, is not possible in all cases, and an almost insurmountable difficulty is experienced, as when, in the case of the Deep-water Gurnard (Peristedion gracile) we are told:—"So rapidly do such fishes as this change color when brought up from considerable depths, that we can never be sure that the colors they exhibit when we first behold them are really those which they possess in the depths which they inhabit; in fact, we may be quite sure that the colors are not the same, but whether the colors are more or less intense is difficult to determine."

The curious trivial names applied to animals are often inexplicable. A fish found from Florida Keys to Brazil is known by the appellation of "Margate-fish." According to Mr. Evermann, some of the fishermen of the Bahamas came originally from Margate, and thus gave the name of their English port to a fish which they found in the Bahamas.