HANDBOOK 

 OF INDIAN FEESH-WATEE FISHES. 



CHAPTEK I. 



ON ICHTHYOLOGY IN GENERAL, AND THAT OF THE INDIAN 

 FRESH WATERS IN PARTICULAR. 



Ichthyology, or the Study of Fishes, is one of the 

 least popular branches of Natural History ; the reason 

 being probably that the element in which fishes 

 live, prevents their peculiarities and habits being 

 brought so prominently before our every-day notice 

 as are those of creatures living on dry land. 



Many people are led by the beauty of flowers to 

 direct their attention to the study of botany, or by 

 the cheerful songs and bright plumage of birds to 

 investigate their natural history. Many a time has 

 the acquisitiveness of childhood, directed at first to 

 the collection of butterflies, or birds' eggs, ripened 

 into the scientific inquisitiveness of later years, and 

 made itself manifest in due course of time through 

 the patient labour of an ornithologist or an ento- 

 mologist. 



B 



