200 NEW SOUTH WALES 



Japax. 



1. Fauna Japonica. Poissons ; par H. Sclilegel. (Ludg. Bat., 

 1850, fol.) 



.East Indies : Tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. 

 1. E. Kuppell Neue Wirbelthiere. Fisclie. (Frankf., 1837, fol.) 



"These two works form tlie standard works for the student of the 

 Fishes of the Red Sea, and are distinguished by a rare conscientiousness 

 and faithf uhiess of the description and figures ; so that there is no other 

 part of tlie tropical seas with the fisli of which we are so intimately 

 acquainted as with those of the Red Sea. But these works have a still 

 wider range of usefulness, inasmuch as only a small proportion of the 

 fishes is limited to that area, the majority being distributed over the 

 Indian Ocean into Polynesia. Ruppell's works were supplemented by 

 the first two of the folloAving Avorks : — 



3. B. L. Playfair and A. Giinther : The Fishes of Zanzibar. 



(London, 1866, 4to.); and 



4. C. B. Klunzinger : Synopsis der Fisclie des Rothen Meers. 



(Wien, 1870-i, 8vo.) 



5. T. Cantor: Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. (Calcutta, 1850, 8 vo.) 



6. F. Day : The Fishes of India (London, 1875, 4to., in progress) ; 



contains an account of the fresh-water and marine species, and 

 is not yet complete. 



7. A. Giinther : Die Fische der Sudsee. (Llamburg, 4to., from 1873, 



in progress.) 



"Unsurpassed in activity, as regards the ex[)loration of the fish fauna 

 of the East Indian Archipelago, is P. Blocker, a surgeon in the service 

 of the Dutch East Indian Government (born 1819, died 1878), who 

 from the year 1840, for nearly thirty years, amassed immense collections 

 of the fishes of the various islands, and described them in extremely 

 numerous papers, published chiefly in the Journals of the Batavian 

 Society. When his descriptions and the arrangement of his materials 

 evoked some criticism, it must be remembered that at the time when he 

 commenced his labours, and for many years afterwards, he stood alone, 

 without the aid of a previously named collection on which to base his 

 first researches, and without other works but that of a Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes. He had to create for himself a method of distinguishing 

 species and describing them, and afterwards it would be diflicult for 

 him to abandon his original method and the principles by which he had 

 been guided for so many yeai's. His desire of giving a new name to 

 every individual, to every small assemblage of species, wherever prac- 

 ticable, or of changing an old name, detracts not a little from the 

 satisfaction with which his works would be used otherwise. 



" It is also surprising that a man with his anatomical knowledge and 

 unusual facilities should have been satisfied with the merely external 

 examination of the specimens ; but none of his numerous articles 

 contain anything relating to the anatomy, physiology, or habits of the 

 fishes which came under his notice ; hence his attempts at systematic 

 arrangement are very far from indicating an advance in Ichthyology. 



" Soon after his return to Europe (1860), Blecker commenced to collect 

 the final results of his labours in a grand work, illustrated by coloured 



