﻿Fresidenfs Address. 



57 



Wernerian Natural History Society {Memoirs, vol. vii.). 

 Since then many scattered records have been made by 

 local naturalists, including the Committee of this Society 

 on Marine Zoology ; and our knowledge of the Ichthyology 

 of the Forth, in its faunal as well as in its economic aspects, 

 has, in the course of the past twenty years, been very largely 

 increased by the investigations of the Scientific Department 

 of the Fishery Board for Scotland. The Board's Annual 

 Eeports (1885 et seq.) are full of tabulated data of faunistic 

 value, while the rarer occurrences are recorded by Dr Wemyss 

 Fulton and others under a separate heading. Earities pre- 

 sented to the Eoyal Scottish Museum have been recorded 

 from time to time by Dr E. H. Traquair. These records 

 since Parnell's day, in so far as they relate to species additional 

 to his list, or accounted rare therein, have been brought 

 together by Mr W. Eagle Clarke in two papers published 

 in the Annals of Scottish Natural History for 1900 (pp. 8-17, 

 and 202-215). Parnell's Essay and Clarke's Supplements 

 furnish us with what must be regarded as a very full list 

 of the Fishes of the area. Adding three since obtained 

 (see below), and Rhomhus norvegicios, which I think may 

 also be included, the number of species recorded to date is 

 143,^ a figure not likely to be increased to any material 

 extent. There is still, however, a good deal to be done 

 before our knowledge of the Ichthyology of Forth can be said 

 to be as complete as it should be. The fact that Parnell's 

 list contains records of a dozen fishes not since known to 

 have occurred in the area is not satisfactory and needs 

 explanation, while the distribution of a number of species, 

 especially among the smaller inshore forms, is still im- 

 perfectly worked out. 



The following are some supplementary records, including 

 the four above-referred-to additions to the list (they are 

 marked *), of which I have a note : ^ — 



Basse, Lahrax lahrax (Linn.) = Z. luj^us (Lacep.) — One 

 caught at Kincardine-on-Forth, 5th February 1902 (Dr Wemyss 

 Fulton, Twenty-first Rept. Fish. Board Scot., part iii. p. 229). 

 One, weighing about 2 lbs., captured off Elie in November 1904, 

 is in the Eoyal Scottish Museum. 



1 This excludes one or two introduced fresh- water species. 

 A few subsequent records, bringing the information down to the end 

 of 1908, have since been inserted. 



