12 Sir R. H. Schomburgk on some new species of Fishes 



litary specimens from the West Indies in the works of Catesby, 

 Bloch, Schneider, and in the great systematical work of Cuvier 

 and Valenciennes, but I am not aware that there exists a local 

 marine fauna of any of these islands which might assist in the 

 compilation of a more extensive ichthyological work on the West 

 Indies. 



The great interest which I feel in this science induced me, 

 during my late sojourn in the island of Barbados, one of the 

 group of the West Indies*, to make a collection of such fishes as 

 are found in the sea which surrounds it, and in which 1 was most 

 materially assisted by C. K. Bishop, Esq., of Orange Hill in Bar- 

 bados. The greater number of these fishes were determined by 

 Professor Dr. Miiller and Dr. Troschel of Berlin, and have been 

 published, with others which I collected, in my * History of Bar- 

 bados f-' The species and varieties which are enumerated or de- 

 scribed amount to One hundred and twenty. It is evident that 

 this list contains only a small portion of the finny tribe of the 

 surrounding sea, and I doubt not that if some ichthyologist 

 were to dedicate himself to this district alone, he would qua- 

 druple that number. Indeed the fishes described in my work do 

 not even contain all the species which were collected in Barbados, 

 as a number which were procured after my departure arrived too 

 late to be forwarded to Berlin, and I presented this collection to 

 the British Museum. The distant hope that Dr. Troschel would 

 visit London in the course of the last summer prevented me from 

 taking any further measm'cs for their determination. 



When the systematical arrangement of the numerous treasures 

 of the ichthyological department of the British Museum is once 

 entrusted to some good ichthyologist, and a description of the 

 new genera and species is combined with it, (and I have been 

 given to understand there are some hopes of seeing this accom- 

 plished,) it will then prove much easier to compile a marine fauna 

 of the West Indian Archipelago, to which the present enumeration 

 of the fishes around Barbados may prove a useful contribution. 



As my ^ History of Barbados ' possesses only local interest and 

 is not likely to fall into tlie hands of naturalists generally, I avail 

 myself of the greater publicity of the * Annals of Natural History ' 

 to present herewith a description of the new genus Caprophonus, 

 and of such species of known genera as Professor Miiller and 

 Dr. Troschel considered to be new among the collection, or where 



• The position of Bridgetown, the city of the island, is in latitude V6° 4' 

 north and longitude 59° ^37' vvestfiom Greenwich. 



t * The History of Biirhados, comprising a geographical and statistical 

 description of the island; a sketch of the historical events since the settle- 

 ment, and an account of its geology and natural productions.* London, 

 Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 18J8, pp. 665-678. 



