304 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



feel convinced that were a beginning made intelligently and 

 determinedly, many who now ignore the subject, although 

 perhaps living in localities favourable for ichthyological 

 pursuits, would find it interesting and pleasing. I myself 

 like it for the difficulties that have to be surmounted ; and 

 the amount of speculation and deduction to be drawn from 

 casual happenings in no way lessens my interest. Every 

 naturalist has at least some small chance of adding to our 

 store of knowledge ; and if the making of local lists and 

 working out the faunas of localities be too great a task, at 

 least the recording of rare species, in any branch of natural 

 science, should be esteemed a duty. 



The above reflections are suggested by a note 1 received in 

 March, 1906, which dealt with the finding of a rare Yarmouth 

 fish, the occurrence of which I did not record in my list of 

 species. 1 " J. T. F." wrote : " I am now reading with much 

 interest your Nature in Eastern Norfolk. ... I know and 

 remember most of the scenes which you describe, and enjoy 

 their being recalled. ... I recall one of my Natural History 

 observations . . . this relates to a fish, the lesser forkbeard 

 (Raniceps trifurcatus). I used occasionally to watch the 

 draw-nets emptied on the beach, and in passing where one had 

 recently been drawn, to stop and examine the fish which had 

 been rejected. On a day in January, 1861, my brother (now 

 Col. R. F.) and I came upon a few of these rejected fish 

 south of the Wellington pier. We selected one which was 

 strange to us and took it home, and through Yarrell (2nd 

 edit.) we established it as the lesser forkbeard. I preserved 

 it in spirit, and kept it here for about forty years, and then 

 presented it to the Norwich Museum, where it may now be 

 seen. I think its length is about 8 in. Yarrell believed 

 that no example had been obtained elsewhere than the 

 Cornish coast, except one at Berwick-on-Tweed, and it 

 seems that mine may probably be the earliest recorded Nor- 

 folk example, or perhaps the second for the whole east 

 coast, though no doubt it is only the capture of this fish 

 which is of such extreme rarity, and its existence is more 

 common than any evidence would lead us to suppose. I 

 should observe that the fish was still living when I picked it 

 up. The only other fish of the least interest which I chanced 



1 Vide Nature in Eastern Norfolk^ p. 290. 



