PISCES. 



BY SAMUEL GARMAN. 



The fishes, twenty-nine species, secured by this Expedition were taken at 

 various points on the Yangtze Kiang and its affluent the Min, between Kiating 

 and Shasi sixty miles or more below Ichang, Hupeh. Three of the species are 

 Chinese perches, Siniperca, also said to be found in Japan ; one is a clupeoid, 

 Coilia, heretofore known as marine,. the presence of which so far from the mouth 

 of the river is probably due to a habit of spawning in fresh water; another is 

 an Ophicephalus of wide range in eastern Asia; three others are siluroids, 

 one of them very widely distributed, another peculiar to the locality, and a 

 third apparently undescribed; twenty are cyprinoids which taken together 

 might indicate rather less dependence on barbels in their region than farther 

 to the south or to the west; three of these species appear to be undescribed; 

 and finally one of the species is an eel, Monopterus, which has been taken in 

 numerous localities of China, India, the East Indian Archipelago, and Japan. 

 In early days the fishes of the valley of the Yangtze were more distinct, because 

 more isolated, than at present. By means of the Grand Canal all streams of 

 moderate length between Hangchow on the south and Pekin on the north were 

 linked together so that the basin of the Hwang Ho, draining into the Gulf of 

 Chihli, and that of the Yangtze Kiang drained into the Yellow Sea are no longer 

 so far as concerns their fishes to be treated as distinct faunal regions. This 

 connection by the Canal accounts for the fact that Basilewsky, 1855, has de- 

 scribed so many of the species contained in the present series, from collections 

 in great part made in streams flowing into the Gulf of Chihli, and also for the 

 fact that his types and specimens from the Yangtze differ so little. The Chinese 

 types described by Bleeker were mainly taken near the mouth of the Yangtze, 

 as were those described by Steindachner and the earlier of those of Giinther. 

 By later contributions Sauvage, Giinther, and Regan have added to the knowl- 

 edge of the species much nearer the sources of the river. The localities tra- 

 versed by Mr. Zappey were thus pretty well surrounded by the localities of 

 earlier workers. In the following list additions to original descriptions and 

 variations of individual specimens are recorded by the partial diagnoses 

 appended. 



