PREFACE. 



The Survey of the Fishes of the Nile, the results of which are embodied in this work, 

 was undertaken by the Egyptian Government in response to an appeal addressed in 

 January 1899 to the Earl of Cromer by the late Dr. John Anderson, supported by 

 Lord Lister, as President of the Royal Society, Dr. A. Giinther, as President of the 

 Linnean Society, Prof. E. Eay Lankester, as Director of the Natural History 

 Departments of the British Museum, and Dr. P. L. Sclater, as Secretary of the 

 Zoological Society. 



As pointed out by Dr. Anderson, our knowledge of the Fishes of the Nile was 

 then very imperfect, and as a Survey of the Congo Fishes had been undertaken by the 

 Government of the Congo Free State, and was in progress, the study of the results of 

 which had been entrusted to me, the time seemed opportune for the undertaking 

 which has resulted in the present work; the two Surveys, it was thought, would 

 naturally benefit each other, the materials afforded by the one throwing light upon 

 those of the other, many of the species of the two great rivers being closely allied, 

 a few even identical. 



Dr. Anderson's request received the approval of the Egyptian Government, the 

 necessary funds were granted, Mr. Leonard Loat was appointed to superintend and 

 carry out, during three years, the formation of a large collection of the Nile Fishes, 

 under the supervision of Dr. Keatinge, Director of the Government Medical School 

 at Cairo, and I was entrusted with the task of preparing a book which should form 

 part of Dr. Anderson's ' Zoology of Egypt,' of which a volume on the Reptiles had 

 already been published and a second volume, on the Mammals, was then in 

 preparation and has since appeared. The Trustees of the British Museum consented 

 to provide the necessary collecting material. 



