
Vill 
As an example that “ seeing is believing,” in its most comprehen- 
sive view, and that without it, the most liberal may be the most 
sceptical, one of the senior Provincial Judges, a religious and 
hospitable character, who had resided twenty-four years in Ceylon, 
complimented the Author on the “ fertility of his imagination,” 
when the first drawing of the Hembili Girawah, No. 14, met his 
view. His breakfast table, the next morning, displayed two living 
specimens of that splendid fish, in a vase of water, which had 
been caught within eight hundred yards of his own residence. With 
an exclamation, he did justice to the author; and in a most im- 
pressive manner expressed his admiration of, and ascribed all glory 
to the works of Him, to whom all things are possible as Nature’s God ! 
The Cingalese fishers give no reason for their application of terms 
to distinguish fish of the same species; they seem indifferent to the 
necessity for appropriate names, which, as they say, must be as nume- 
rous as the seeds of the Wara, (the Abrus precatorius of Linnzeus). 
In Lena Girawah, No. 24, the Ceylon striped squirrel, from its three 
stripes, might readily suggest a distinguishing character to one fish, 
actually of the Parrot species, having no teeth, but upper and lower 
jaws, beautifully divided into compartments. Parrot fishes, when 
they are full grown, have such strength in their jaws as to be enabled 
to crush oysters, muscles, &c. to get at the flesh within. 
In order that the peculiar characters of the Fishes may be pre- 
served for reference, as long as such preparations generally last, the 
Linnean Society has conferred an honor upon the Author by accept- 
ing the dried Specimens of the Fins and Gill-covers of the Fishes 
herein delineated, for the Society's Museum, in Soho-Square. 
Having given the reasons which first induced the Author to 
venture on the present work, the public will, he trusts, be so in- 
dulgent towards him as to admit that, if he has not entirely 
succeeded, he has endeavoured to give satisfaction. He has adhered, 
in his drawings of the Fishes, strictly to nature; and, as far as his 
colours permitted, imitated their various hues: but, alas, in vain 
must be every endeavour to attain perfection ! 
