INTRODUCTION. 11
to distinguish the different species is made : one name
(and that, more often than not, a purely local one) is
often applied in a most hap-hazard manner to several
allied species.
Having thus pointed out some of the main diffi-
culties confronted in compiling this portion of the list,
I may add that I have found it necessary to give only
those species of fish which have been either identified
by myself, or mentioned by some authority, such as
Yarrell, Day, and Donovan, or noted by some other
competent recorder in the pages of The Zoologist, The
Field, or Land and Water.
The lack of catalogues of the Fauna of the maritime
counties generally has been a still further hindrance. A
list of the Fish Fauna of all our neighbouring counties
would afford opportunities for comparison, and, by
teaching us what species exist on similar shores, would
incite a search for those whose presence would be
otherwise unsuspected.
Of the three counties on the eastern coast of
England for which lists have been published (viz.,
Norfolk, Yorkshire, and Essex), the former has been
especially fortunate. Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682),
the well-known author of the Religio Medici, compiled,
more than two centuries ago, "An Account of Fishes
found in Norfolk and on the Coast." This was first
printed by Simon Wilkin in his edition of Browne's