2 INDIAN FRESH-WATER FISHES. 



But fishes do not force themselves upon our atten- 

 tion in this manner, they do not show to advantage 

 when taken out of the water, indeed to a superficial 

 observer there seems little difference between one 

 kind of fish and another ; in fact, most people would 

 recognise them more readily when on the dinner table, 

 clothed only in their appropriate sauce, than when 

 seen in their natural state with all their wonderful 

 arrangements of fins and scales, and other adjuncts 

 complete. 



It is only of late years that any attempt has been 

 made, by the establishment of large public aquariums, 

 to enable people in general to form any idea of the 

 domestic life of fish at home. 



And yet, when one comes to know a little about 

 fish, it becomes manifest that they yield in interest to 

 no other class of created things, — whether we con- 

 sider their wonderful variety, or the beauty of some 

 species, and the strange shapes and hideous appear- 

 ance of others, or the peculiarities of their habits. 



The study of Ichthyology has certainly peculiar 

 difficulties, but it has also advantages of its own. 



One thing which, in the eyes of many people, would 

 detract from its interest, is the fact that it is hardly 

 possible to establish a " collection" of fishes. 



A great many people consider natural history to be 

 an affair of cabinets, and drawers, and portfolios, and 

 the more odds and ends of sorts they can collect 

 together the more they are pleased. (This, as I 

 before remarked, is the childish, not the practical 



