fCHTHYOLOGT 



INTRODUCTIOK 



" The cai-p, with golden scales, in wanton play ; 

 The trout in crimson-speckled glory gay ; 

 The red-finn'd roach, the silver-coated eel ; 

 Tlie pike, whose haunt the twisted roots conceal ; 

 The healing tench, the gudgeon, perch, and bream 

 And all the sportive natives of the stream." 



The study of fishes, technically termed Ichthy- 

 ology, was, perhaps, longer in being brought to 

 Avhat might be called a science, than the histories 

 and descriptions of animals and birds. The 

 difficulty of procuring a numerous series- of in- 

 dividuals, and the impossibility of penetrating 



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