Xx 
In the case of nomenclature we have endeavoured to follow 
as much as possible the international rules, without falling 
into excesses, and without demolishing every bridge to the 
known past. 
It may be expected of a faunistical work, that it gives the 
distribution of the species as accurately and as extensively as 
possible. Therefore all localities in the Archipelago, where we 
knew a certain species to occur, were included. We followed 
the botanists by putting a(!) after those localities, from which 
we have seen specimens. When the range of a species extends 
outside our region, this wider distribution has also been recorded 
under “Habitat”. 
We are well aware that the last word in matters of distri- 
bution has not yet been spoken, nor do we doubt that in 
future still many a new species will have to be added to the 
Indo-Australian fauna. This being still possible in a fishfauna 
from as small a sea as the North Sea, which has been studied 
so much and is situated within reach of ichthyologists of 
different civilised nations, how much greater is the chance in 
a far off region such as ours, which is so much larger and of 
such a diversity of conditions of life. It is clear that only a 
part of its fauna — though it be by far the most important 
one — can be known. 
Although this is a weak point in a faunistical work like 
Ours, it would be useless to defer publishing it till the fauna 
is better known. This would be a removal ad calendas graecas. 
Besides, a work such as this, can be a help to increase the 
knowledge of the fauna and to stimulate further research. 
Even after the extensive work of P. BLEEKER, to which we 
have so to say erected a monument in our first volume, a 
work on the fishes of the Indo-Australian Archipelago is still 
wanted. BLEEKER’s Atlas ichthyologique remained incomplete. 
His other writings can only partially supply the missing parts. 
Moreover, since BLEEKER’s death in 1878 our knowledge 
has greatly increased, many new species having been described. 
The deep-sea fauna was totally unknown to him, as well as 
the freshwater fauna of New Guinea und the neighbouring 
islands of Waigeu, Aru and Kei. Expeditions to unknown 
parts of Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes, to the Lesser Sunda Islands, 
Ceram, etc. in the last 20 years, have added much to our 
knowledge of the fishfauna. 
