12 INDIAN FRESH- WATER FISHES. 



name of a plant or animal is the name of the genus. 

 The second, distinctive, or specific name is frequently 

 nothing but an adjective . Thus, for instance, " Bar- 

 bus immaculatus," the " unspotted barbel," denotes 

 a fish of the genus Barbus. The name of the genus 

 is thus a kind of surname. Thus it happens that 

 when an author sees fit to alter the classification 

 adopted by previous writers, and to place a fish 

 in a different genus, he at the same time alters the 

 name of the fish itself. The consequence is, that 

 the same fish may be described in four or five books 

 by as many different names. 



A most valuable aid to the study of Ichthyology 

 is the British Museum descriptive Catalogue of Fishes, 

 by Dr. Albert Giinther, in 8 vols., in which the whole 

 subject is treated in a comprehensive and masterly 

 manner, and where all the names by which every 

 known fish has been described by different authors is 

 given, that specific name under which it was first 

 described being accepted as the name of the fish, 

 according to the recognised rule. 



It is most devoutly to be hoped that future writers 

 will endeavour, so far as possible, to follow the classi- 

 fication therein given, every deviation from which 

 only tends to land us in a state of preeguntherite con- 

 fusion. 



(KB. Vols. Y. and VII. of Giinther's work, contain- 

 ing the Families Siluriilse and Cyprinidee, are those 

 most particularly interesting to the Indian student.) 



