A NOTE ON FRANCIS DAY'S "THE FISHES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND"

Abstract

Between 1880 and 1884 Francis Day (1829-1889) published his monumental work on British fishes. It is a book which represents the fruits of a life time's interest in fishes, at first in India where Day was successively Deputy SurgeonGeneral of the Madras Army and Inspector General of Fisheries in India, and after his retirement to Cheltenham, in England. As a text book for the naturalist interested in British fishes it is still without peer, although with the passage of time much of the nomenclature has changed, and there have been many additions to this fauna. Its present utility, however, can be judged by the scarcity of copies offered for sale and the price they command. It might be noted in passing that Day personally drew all the one hundred and seventy-nine plates (some containing several figures), in itself a formidable task for a man not trained as an artist. Many of his plates have been paid the compliment (sometimes unacknowledged) of use in later books on British fishes and marine life. The reason Day acted as his own artist is mentioned briefly in his preface to the work; his usual artist Mr. Mintern being already committed to illustrate a publication on the same subject by Dr. A. Gunther, who was not prepared to release him for work on Day's book. Most authors in citing this work for bibliographic purposes give the publication date as 1880-1884, thus following the title pages which were, of course, issued with the last part of the work. In fact, the volumes were issued in eight parts during those four years, and although no question of nomenclatural priority arises with this work (which contains no new scientific name) it seems worth while to record the year of publication of each part if only to avoid the usual cumbersome citation of dates. The source of these dates is the contemporary issues of The Zoological Record.