Bibliographical Notices, 331 



tempted, and the facts which relate or bear upon it are few in num- 

 ber. 



The publication of the History of the Freshwater Fishes of Central 

 Europe by M. Agassiz has been looked forward to with interest by 

 British ichthyologists. Some of the plates for it were engraved so 

 far back as 1832, and the long time which it has been known to be in 

 preparation, with the high scientific character of its author, raised 

 the expectations of those who were studying the same subject. The 

 first livraison of plates has now reached this country, accompanied 

 only with simple explanations, so that we do not yet receive the 

 views of M. Agassiz upon many of the obscure points, but can only 

 guess at what may be his probable conclusions. The mode of publi- 

 cation is however otherwise excellent, each livraison being intended 

 to contain complete illustrations of a family or group, so that the 

 whole is brought under review at once, and is not scattered about as 

 so commonly occurs in works which appear in numbers. The de- 

 scriptive letter-press to this part is promised with the plates of the 

 second, which are to illustrate the Coregoni. 



The plates are lithographic, are minutely executed, and those de- 

 voted to the details of the fins, scaling, and magnified figures are 

 very useful. A plate of details is given with each species. The 

 others represent the fish in its various states incident to age and 

 season. The first series show the Salmon, M. and F., in its breed- 

 ing dress, and a female in the state of summer or high condition 

 after having newly entered a river. These figures lead us to believe, 

 what we have long suspected, that the Salmon of many of the 

 continental rivers differed or was not identical with the common 

 British fish. They are reduced from specimens upwards of three feet 

 in length ; at this age and size the tail in both sexes of the latter 

 would be completely square, and the scale represented fig. 3. tab. 1 a, 

 is fully two-thirds less. The markings in tab. 2. also differ much. Six 

 plates are devoted to the illustration of S. fario. Some of the figures 

 are of importance as showing what is to be understood by the 5. mar- 

 moratus, Cuv., and the S. sylvaticus of Shrank : but with the En- 

 glish synonyms we cannot agree, they are given, " the Trout, the 

 common Trout, the river Trout, the Gillaroo, the Parr (a young 

 Trout)." Now the Gillaroo of Ireland still requires investigation, 

 and we have reason to believe that it will form a distinct species. 

 The Parr of Scotland has no connexion with S. fario*, and the 



* For distinctive characters between the Scotch Parr and common S. fario 

 see Sir W. Jardine in Proceedings of Berwickshire Club. For characters 

 separating it from the young of the Salmon and migratory Trout, see Mr. 

 Yarrell'a British Fishes; and Dr. Parnell, Fishes of the Frith of Forth. 



