PISCES. 
167 
omitted to make any generalizations as regards the character of 
this fish-fauna compared with other parts of the Indian Ocean, 
although, if his account be tolerably complete, some very curious 
facts would be apparent at once, as no Apogon or Scaroid and 
one Blennioid only are mentioned. The real absence or scarcity 
of such common Indian forms, numerous even in the Red Sea, 
would be a highly interesting fact. When we deduct the 64 
species not observed by the author and described from other 
sources and compare the number of the remaining 230 species 
with the 380 collected by Cantor at Penang and on the Malayan 
peninsula in the course of three years and a half, the difference 
appears so great that it should have been explained, particularly 
when we see families like the Cyprinoids so unequally represented 
that Cantor includes two species only in his fauna, whilst Mr. 
Day describes not less than twenty. 
The author has borrowed the generic diagnoses from other 
works, and gives only a part of the synonymy, which, however, 
is judiciously selected. The plates are executed by the author, 
who has bestowed much labour on them, and are certainly very 
accurate. As a part of the copies are sold with plain figures, 
we recommend particularly the choice of one with coloured 
plates. 
Filippi, F. de. Viaggio in Persia. Seepp. 3, 63, I4I. 
The author (pp. 357-360) enumerates twenty-two species of 
fishes, a part of which will be mentioned below. 
He treats at some length of the physical characters of the Caspian Sea 
(pp. 307-326). Its fauna is so essentially composed of freshwater forms that 
we may arrive at the certain conclusion that no direct communication ever 
existed between it and the Black Sea. But this freshwater creation is me- 
naced with extinction at a more or less remote period. There is a continuous 
import of saline substances going on through the agency of rivers which flow 
over saline strata, and the water of which is perfectly salted. This, combined 
with the evaporation of the Caspian Sea, must finally result in such a con- 
centrated condition of its water as is incompatible with the existence of or- 
ganic life — a state of things which, according to Prof. Baer, is too remote to 
justify the fears of the present generation. The author enumerates some 
forty-five species of fishes known chiefly through the researches of Eichwald, 
adding a new species of Capoeta. None of them belong to a marine tjq)e ; 
28 are found in the Danube, 6 in the Black Sea, 7 are peculiar to the Cas- 
pian Sea, and 6 are of Asiatic origin, being found in Persian rivers. 
Muller, J. W. Reisen in den Vereinigten Staaten. See p. 3. 
The list of Mexican Vertebrata contains the names of some 
130* freshwater and marine species (pp. 89-109). Several 
new species are described. 
* Prof. Troschel cannot have seen a proof-sheet ; names which evidently 
were placed as synonyms of one species in the manuscript, received after- 
