FISHES The Essex coast is a very favourable one for those species of fish whose habitat is mainly confined to a shallow sea with a bottom of sand or mud, but to those requiring deeper waters and rocks these conditions are not the most suitable, as there is no hard rock in the county or in the adjoining seas, and these rock loving species are therefore to a great extent absent from our fauna, and when found are usually stragglers from the rocky districts of the more northern counties. Nevertheless the list of Essex fish, incomplete as it must be from causes to be referred to further on, is a comparatively large one in consequence of the shallow estuaries, creeks and channels forming such excellent feeding grounds and nurseries. Considerable difficulties occur to any one endeavouring to compile a list of the fish of a county unless there are some records to refer to, for it is impossible for any single observer to be thoroughly acquainted with all the captures which have occurred in every part of such an extensive coast line as that of Essex. Many species will certainly be omitted, and but little help can be obtained in increasing the list from those fishermen who pursue this calling for a living, as they pay attention only to those species which are marketable, and even amongst these they lump together several under some local name, probably used elsewhere to designate an entirely different species or genus. This difficulty is however not confined to Essex, it is common to the whole coast of the kingdom and is a great drawback to the value of lists in which the captures are described and recorded under their local designations. It might have been expected that in at least one of our numerous fishing villages there would have been found some educated and intelligent observer who would interest himself to discover and record the dif- ferent species of fish caught and to ascertain the nature of the food on which the marketable fish thrive. Unfortunately however this branch of natural history appears to have been entirely neglected in all our districts, with the result that records of captures in the natural history journals are very scanty. Residents in the county who have been interested in natural history have given their attention to other branches to the utter neglect of this one, which is perhaps the most important of all in so far as the well being of the population is concerned. Cause for complaint may possibly soon be removed, for a competent naturalist has lately interested himself in the fisheries of the Thames estuary, so that it may be hoped that our list will be considerably added to in the future. It has unfortunately not been possible to get any list from him up to the present. The writer of this article has therefore laboured 220
