116 Bibliographical Notices. 



witness the publication of the results of his labours. Before one 

 half of the first volume had beon printed Dr. Day was so ill that 

 he could no longer take any part in seeing his work through the 

 press, which was consequently thrown entirely upon the Editor ; 

 and he died within a very few days of the publication of the first 

 volume. 



So far as the book is concerned, however, under the careful and 

 conscientious editorship of Dr. Blanford, intensified no doubt by the 

 feeling that special care was requisite in dealing with the orphaned 

 work of a deceased friend, it has probably suffered very little by the 

 untimely death of its author. Of its interest to the zoologist there 

 can be equally little doubt. It contains the characters of over 

 1400 species of Indian fishes*, and as these consist to a great extent 

 of forms ranging on the one hand from 1?he Red Sea and African coasts, 

 and on the other from Japan and the Pacific, to the Indian region, it 

 embraces a most interesting and important series of forms. From 

 another point of view the great number of Indian freshwater fishes, 

 many of them with marine affinities, first made known to European 

 zoologists by Hamiltou-Buchanan some seventy years ago, are of 

 great interest, and to the number of these Dr. Day has by his own 

 researches made considerable additions. 



As to the mode in which the work has been carried out there is 

 little to be said. From the great number of species to be described 

 it was no doubt impossible to introduce statements as to their natural 

 history, such as Dr. Blanford was able to incorporate in his account 

 of the Indian Mammals, and indeed it is probable that in the case 

 of Fishes there was comparatively little to be said. But the short 

 descriptions seem to be carefully drawn up, the groups, families, 

 genera, and species are tabulated throughout, and as a guide to the 

 determination of the species here recorded the book leaves little or 

 nothing to be desired. 



There is, however, one point to which we would call attention, 

 as we think it marks a serious defect in an otherwise excellent book. 

 The synonymy of the species and genera is very imperfectly given, 

 and in most cases the reader is referred for information upon this 

 point to the author's ' Fishes of India.' To the collector wishing 

 to ascertain the names of his specimens this is of little consequence, 

 but to the student of Ichthyology it is a very different matter. For 

 all the higher purposes of systematic Natural History a knowledge 

 of synonyms is indispensable, and it will be a great disappointment 

 to the student to find that to obtain this in the present case he must 

 refer to another book which perhaps is not within his reach. Of 

 many species with a very wide distribution it may safely be pre- 

 dicated that they have been several times described under different 

 names by authors who have had to deal with collections from 

 particular localities, and under such circumstances the absence of 



* This number has been considerably increased by the numerous marine 

 species noticed and described by Dr. Alcock in his interesting papers 

 published in the last two numbers of this Journal. 



