PREFACE ix 



sary to adopt some plan of treatment differing in degree of 

 detail from that projected in those earlier volumes of the library, 

 which dealt with the smaller groups of our mammals and fresh- 

 water fishes. Even apart from the necessity for such com- 

 pression, it must frankly be admitted that neither the limited 

 extent of our present acquaintance with many of the fishes 

 found in our seas nor the slighter personal interest which 

 they have for sportsmen or amateur naturalists would have 

 warranted any longer account of their life-histories. The 

 more important, such as the mackerel, cod, and herring, have, 

 as will be seen, been dealt with in some detail, though even 

 in their case it is impossible to write with the same facility as, 

 for instance. Sir Harry Johnston might employ when writing 

 of the red deer, or as Sir Herbert Maxwell would command 

 in treating of the salmon. When the Marine Laboratories at 

 Plymouth and elsewhere have left another ten years of useful 

 research behind them, those who make it their business to 

 transcribe their erudite memoirs in commonplace language for 

 the information of the public may have a different story to tell, 

 but at present the biographer of our sea fish finds himself 

 continually thwarted by missing clues and unsolved mysteries. 

 The author has to tender his best thanks to Dr. E. J. Allen, 

 Mr, G. A. Boulenger, Professor Herdman, and many others 

 for considerable assistance, while he cannot speak too highly 

 of the 'patient labour which Miss F. Seth has devoted to the 

 illustrations. 



F. G. A. 



