IV. PREFACE. 



of Nrttm'al Histoiy. As the basis of tlie work, an extensi^'e collection 

 of our fishes was accumulated in the Museum, together with sketches 

 and other information bearing on the subject, and from this material 

 the systematic Catalogue has been prepared by Captain Hutton. 



To his i^oi-tion of tlie w^ork I have added a few brief notes on the 

 Natural History of those species of fishes which are iisefiil as food, a 

 subject on which as yet our information is A^ery imperfect and frequently 

 contradictory. Nevertheless, I have thought it better to publish these 

 notes, as their defects may induce others, whc^have better opportunities 

 for obsei'vation, to communicate information on the subject, and thus 

 help us to acquire a complete knowledge of the Ichthyology of New 

 Zealand at an eai-ly date. 



In order to assist those who are not vei-sed in the scientific terms of 

 zoologists in their attempts to recognise our fishes by the popular names 

 now proposed, forty-nine of the species, chiefly such as ai-e most com- 

 monly met with in the market, have been lithographed in outline by 

 Mr. Buchanan. In most cases these drawings wei^e from fresh specimens, 

 and may therefore be relied on as accurate. At the same time, begin- 

 ners who desire to study Ichthyology, and to enlarge our list by further 

 discoveries, must not rely in their comparisons on these or any other 

 di-awings, but on the fullest descriptions they can obtain, combined with 

 personal observation of the fishes themselves. 



Several changes will be observed in the nomenclature of our fishes 

 from the list given in the Catalogue of the Colonial Museum (1870), 

 which was prepared from Richardson's list given in Dieffenbach's work 

 on New Zealand. These changes are chiefly owang to the circumstance 

 that Dr. Giinther's magnificent work on Ichthyology, which forms the 

 basis of the j^resent classification, was not accessible until that Catalogue 

 was in type, and consequently only a few of the more prominent amend- 

 ments could be adopted. 



The changes in the present Catalogue aflect sixty species oiit of one 

 hundred and thirty-eight formerly enumerated ; of these thirty are 

 fishes that are not mentioned in the previous list, fifteen of them being 

 species which have been discovered since its publication. The other 

 thii'ty alterations ai-e changes of name and do not affect the actual 

 number of known fishes. 



JAMES HECTOR. 

 Colonial Museum, 



Wellington, February, 1872. 



