PREFACE 



A pew words of explanation as to our object in publishing an account of the Fishes 

 of Zanzibar appear necessary. The east coast of Africa may, for purposes of 

 ichthyology, be conveniently divided into four regions. The first is contained within 

 the limits of the Red Sea; the second extends thence to the Rovuma River, the 

 southern boundary of Zanzibar; the third includes the Portuguese province of 

 Mozambique; and the fourth the British settlements of Natal and the Cape. 



The Fish-fauna of three of these has been more or less completely worked out, 

 viz. the Red Sea by Forskal and Ruppell, Mozambique by Peters, and the south- 

 eastern parts by Sir Andrew Smith ; while the ichthyology of the great islands lying 

 off the coast has formed the subject of papers by Lienard, Bennett, Guichenot, and 

 others, not to mention the numerous species described by Lacepede, Cuvier, and 

 Valenciennes. 



But no attempt has been made to illustrate the Fish-fauna of that large extent of 

 coast stretching between the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and Mozambique. The labours 

 of Lieut. Colonel Playfair go far to supply this hiatus. In the course of a residence of 

 many years at Aden and Zanzibar, during which he made frequent excursions to the 

 African coast and the adjacent islands, he formed a considerable collection of Fish, 

 of which the following pages contain a description. With the exception of one or two 

 species described from specimens in the Vienna Museum, which we have not seen, and 

 a few collected by Dr. Kirk in the Rovuma River, now in the British Museum, 

 we have limited ourselves strictly to that collection. We have added, however, a 



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