ioo NOTES AND COMMENTS [February 



The Fishes of Lake Tanganyika. 



Considering the remarkable remnants of a Jurassic marine fauna dis- 

 covered by Mr. J. E. S. Moore among the mollusca of Tanganyika, the 

 collection of fishes made by him at the same time is of a very 

 disappointing nature. According to Mr. Boulenger's detailed and 

 beautifully illustrated report just issued (Trans. Zool. Soc. xv. pp. 1-30, 

 pis. i-viii.), all these fishes are typical modern freshwater forms such as 

 might be found in any part of tropical Africa. The most abundant 

 and varied species belong to the well-known family universally de- 

 scribed in standard works under the name of Chromidae, but here termed 

 Cichlidae in accordance with the latest fad of literary " research." ■ The 

 Tanganyika types of this family, indeed, are so varied that they have 

 necessitated the establishment of nearly as many new genera as were 

 previously known from the whole of Africa. There are three species 

 of the spiny eel-shaped fish, Mastacembelus, six siluroids, three chara- 

 cinoids, and one representative of each of the families Serranidae, Cypri- 

 nidae, and Cyprinodontidae. There is also an undetermined species of 

 Polypterus ; and Mr. Boulenger adds that Protopterus annectens has 

 been recorded by Sir H. H. Johnston. In an appendix, however, Mr. 

 Moore points out that his collection probably gives as inadequate an 

 idea of the fish-fauna of Lake Tanganyika as would a haul on the 

 rocky coast of the Isle of Wight in reference to the fish-fauna of the 

 English Channel. Most of the interesting molluscs, sponges, and so 

 forth, inhabit only the deeper waters of the lake ; and the fishes lying 

 at these depths are still entirely unknown. Moreover, large fishes 

 which bite the paddles of canoes have been seen in the open water 

 away from land, but none of these have yet been captured. Ichthy- 

 ologists, therefore, look forward with great interest to the results of 

 Mr. Moore's projected second expedition, when he will be equipped 

 with more effective means of netting and dredging this and some of 

 the other great lakes. Meanwhile, it is necessary to suspend judgment 

 and postpone speculations as to the meaning of the remarkable fauna 

 in question. 



Zoological Notes from Japan. 



Volume II. Part III. of Annotationes Zoologicae Japoncnscs was pub- 

 lished on October 10, 1898. The first paper is by Seitaro Goto and 

 Shinkichi Hatai, on Japanese earthworms of the genus Perichaeta. It 

 describes sixteen new species ; but to European workers the most in- 

 teresting point will be the statement that all previous describers of P. 

 sieboldi, from Horst to Eosa, have been mistaken as to the position of 

 the spermathecae. A renewed examination of the specimens in Euro- 

 pean museums is called for. 



Seitaro Goto, in the following paper, claims to prove that in the 



