Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY
THE FISHES OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH AND
ITS TRIBUTARIES: SPECIES ADDED SINCE
DR. PARNELL'S 'ESSAY' OF 1837.
By WILLIAM EAGLE CLARKE,
F.L.S.
DR. PARNELL'S Prize Essay
'
On the Natural and Economical
History of the Fishes, Marine, Fluviatile, and Lacustrine,
of the River District of the Firth of Forth ' was contributed
to the " "
Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society
in the year 1837, and forms the bulk (pp. 161-520, and pis.
xviii.-lxiv.) of vol. vii. of the series published in 1838.
It remains to this day one of the most important contributions
to British faunal Ichthyology. Even in other
than its local aspects it still possesses considerable value,
for Dr. Parnell's careful original descriptions of numerous
species may yet be consulted with advantage.
Since Parnell's day no one seems to have made a special
study of the Fishes of the Forth. This is greatly to be
regretted, for much remains to be accomplished. It is true
that the Fishery Board for Scotland has conducted a series of
most valuable and interesting investigations and experiments
on the Forth and its Fishes ;
but these have naturally been
chiefly made in the furtherance of their economic aspects,
though the purely faunal side has not been neglected, and
that such is the case will be manifest in what follows.
The object of this contribution is to gather together the
widely-scattered records of the past sixty years which relate
to such species as are additions to Dr. Parnell's List. In preparing
this paper I have thought it best to give the details
relating to the various occurrences as concisely as possible,
and to give full references for all the published records.
I have been fortunate enough to obtain privately some
additional information of importance, and in
this connection
I have to tender my thanks and acknowledgments to my
friends Mr. Thomas Scott, Naturalist to the Fishery Board
for Scotland, and Mr. William Evans. No doubt some
records have escaped me, and a notice of such would form
a welcome contribution to this magazine. It was not my