Excerpt from The Class Pisces With this improved edition before us, and with the know ledge of the progress of the Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, we have considered that it would answer no purpose beneficial to the reader or to science, were we to attempt a' distinct undertaking of our own, and, by anticipating the labours of the 'baron, risk a distribution in opposition to the typical system, and substitute for his profound researches, descriptions liable to be soon after superseded, or perhaps controverted, by his own masterly pen, thus professedly engaged on the specific account of the whole class. It was therefore deemed most advisable, for the present, to confine the Ichthyological part of the animal kingdom to the version of the revised text in the second edition before noticed, with commentaries in tended to interest the general reader; and, avoiding as much as possible dry details, to endeavour to communicate facts of a more popular nature, relating to the manners and charac ters of the whole finny race; to the habits of the larger groups; to the singularities observed in the nature of certain species; and to the fisheries, economical uses and historical facts connected with Ichthyology. For this purpose, the learned introduction and extensive ground of research, embraced in our author's great work, furnish already abundant materials, and as the publication proceeds we may expect much valuable matter in the future volumes. But the progress of the Animal Kingdom requiring as little delay as possible, it is intended, in order to complete our descriptive parts, to refer in some places to other sources, and while we purpose, not indeed without hesitation, to point out in the notes, a few species which seem to have escaped the vigilance of the noble author, we may also venture to state a few observations of our own, collected during the course of many years, and repeated voyages to distant climates. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.