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 
typos 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 origittal descriptions and 
variations of individual specimens are recorded by the partial diagnoses 
appended. 
