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FISHES.
4. C. B. Klunzinger, "Synopsis der Fische des Rothen Meers." (Wien. 1870-1, 8vo.)
5. T. Cantor, "Catalogue of Malayan Fishes." (Calcutta, 1850, 8vo.)
6. F. Day, "The Fishes of India " (Lond. 1875, 4to, in progress); contains an account of the freshwater and marine species, and is not yet complete.
7. A. Günther, "Die Fische der Südsee." (Hamburg, 4to; from 1873, in progress.)
Unsurpassed in activity, as regards the exploration of the fish fauna of the East Indian Archipelago, is P. Bleeker, a surgeon in the service of the Dutch East Indian Government (born 1819, died 1878), who, from the year 1840, for nearly thirty years, amassed immense collections of the fishes of the various islands, and described them in extremely numerous papers, published chiefly in the Journals of the Batavian Society. When his descriptions and the arrangement of his materials evoked some criticism, it must be remembered that, at the time when he commenced his labours, and for many years afterwards, he stood alone, without the aid of a previously named collection on which to base his first researches, and without other works but that of Cuvier and Valenciennes. He had to create for himself a method of distinguishing species and of describing them; and afterwards it would have been difficult for him to abandon his original method and the principles by which he had been guided for so many years. His desire of giving a new name to every individual, to every small assemblage of species wherever practicable, or of changing an old name, detracts not a little from the satisfaction with which his works would be used otherwise. It is also surprising that a man with his anatomical knowledge and unusual facilities should have been satisfied with the merely external examination of the specimens. But none of his numerous articles contain anything
