THE AXXALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL KISTORV. 



[SEVEXTII SERIES.] 

 No. lOl. MAY 1006. 



LX. — Di'.scrijjtion.'i of neiv Ftshes discovered bij Mr. E. Dcrjen 

 in Lake Victoria. By G. A. Boule.vger, F.ll.S. 



Mr. E. Di;f;i;x, who lias rendered sucli signal service to 

 African iciithyology as a collector of the fishes of Aljyssinia, 

 has utilized his leisure, when recently iti U^auda as assistant 

 to Prof. ]']. A. Miuchiii, by making a very fine collection 

 of the fi>hes of Lake Victoria, our previous knowledge of 

 which was very unsatisfactory. This collection is by far the 

 m')st extensive that has ever been made in tliat lake, con- 

 sistinj; of about 800 specimens. It contains not only 

 examples of nearly all the species which had been previously 

 described by Ililgendorf, Pfeftcr, Pellegrin, and myself, but 

 representatives of as many as 2G which are here described as 

 new. Fuller descriptions and figures of all of them will 

 appear later in the work on the Fishes of the Nile, on 

 which I have been engaged for some years, and the publi- 

 cation of which is necessarily postponed by the constant 

 accession of fresh material. 



Until quite lately the fish-fauna of Lake Victoria was 

 believed to be, comparatively to the other great lakes of 

 Africa, a rather poor one, only about 2i) species being known. 

 From the available data, I concluded, when recently dis- 

 cus.sing the distribution of African fre-diwatcr fishes, that 

 Lake N'ictoria has long been isolated, showing so little in 

 common Mith the fauna of the Nile. This conclusion is 

 further emphasized by the collection brought home bv 



Ann. iC- May. K. Hist. h)cr. 7. Vol. xvii. 30 



