230 ZOOLOGY. [Part II. 



The number of known British fishes may be safely assumed 

 to be less than 250, and Mr. Yarrell enumerates only 226, Dr. 

 Cantor's valuable work on Malayan fishes enumerates not more 

 than 238, while Dr. Eussell has figured only 200 from Coro- 

 mandel. Even the enormous area of the Chinese and Japanese 

 seas has as yet not yielded 800 species of fishes. 



The large extent of the collection alone, then, renders it of 

 great importance ; but its value is immeasurably enhanced by 

 two circumstances, — the first, that every drawing was made 

 while the fish retained all that vividness of colouring which be- 

 comes lost so soon after its removal from its native element ; 

 second, that when the sketch was finished its subject was care- 

 fully labelled, preserved in sj)irits, and . forwarded to England, 

 so that at the present moment the original of every drawing 

 can be subjected to anatomical examination, and compared with 

 already named species. 



Under these circumstances, I do not hesitate to say that the 

 collection is one of the most valuable in existence, and might, 

 if properly worked out, become a large and secure foundation 

 for all future investigation into the ichthyology of the Indian 

 Ocean. 



It would be very hazardous to express an opinion as to the 

 novelty or otherwise of the species and genera figured without the 

 study of the specimens themselves, as the specific distinctions of 

 fish are for the most part based upon character; the fin-rays, 

 teeth, the operculum, &c., which can only be made out by close 

 and careful examination of the object, and cannot be represented 

 in ordinary drawings however accurate. 



There are certain groups of fish, however, whose family traits 

 are so marked as to render it almost impossible to mistake even 

 their portraits, and hence I may venture, without fear of being 

 far wrong, upon a few remarks as to the general features of the 

 ichthyological fauna of Ceylon. 



In our own seas rather less than a tenth of the species of fishes 

 belong to the cod tribe. I have not found one repi'esented in 

 these drawings, nor do either Eussell or Cantor mention any 

 in the surrounding seas, and the result is in general har- 

 mony with the known laws of distribution of these most useful 

 of fishes. 



On the other hand, the mackerel family, including the tun- 

 nies, the bonitos, the dories, the horse-mackerels, &c., which form 

 not more than one sixteenth of our own fish fauna, but which are 



