THE SHAPE OF THE H-I MASS FUNCTION FOR LATE-TYPE GALAXIES OVER THE RANGE M(H)I-APPROXIMATE-TO-10(7)-10(10) M-CIRCLE-DOT

An analysis of two large catalogs of H I observations of nearby galaxies (Fisher & Tully and Hoffman et al.) does not yield evidence for either (1) a sharp rise in the number of low-mass- H I-rich objects relative to the number of large late-type galaxies or (2) a severe deficit of low-mass H I-rich objects. There may be a difference between the Virgo Cluster environment and the general field in the sense that the field is richer in small H I masses relative to the density of large galaxies, but a large uncertainty remains in determinations of the number density of objects with H I masses less than 10(7) M..