Various fish species Unknown

Ichthyological study of various fish species, including:

1. A sandlance, here styled Anglorum and under the common name ‘sand-eel’.
2. A suckerfish, Remora, here styled Iperuquiba Brasiliensibus.
3. A rock gunnel or butterfish, Pholis gunnellus, here styled Gunnellus Cornubiensium.
4. A weatherfish, Misgurnus fossilis, here styled Misgurn Norimbergae.

Printed inscription: ‘1. Sand-Eels Anglorum/ 2. Iperuquiba Brasiliensibus./ 3. Gunnellus Cornubiensium./ 4. Misgurn Norimbergae./ Tab: G.8. Sumptibus D. Ios Williamson Eq: aur: e S. R.’ with further handwritten annotation ‘[1] Ammodytes the Lance/ [2] Remora Imperat Sucking=fish/ [3] Butterfish/ [4] Misgurn seu fisgurn Germanorum An Mustela Fossilis?/ The British sand-eels have only one long finn upon the Back. That of Salvian hath quadratus an sint dua species.’ Numbered ‘39’ in the top right-hand corner.

Plate G:8 from De historia piscium libri quatuor, by Francis Willughby and John Ray (Oxford, 1686).

Francis Willughby (1635-1672), British naturalist, was an Original Fellow of the Royal Society.

John Ray (1627-1705), British naturalist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1667.

Joseph Williamson (1633-1701), British government official, was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society, elected in 1660. He went on to serve as its President from 1677 to 1680. He was also Assistant to the Royal African Company in 1673 and again from 1675 to 1677, a Crown-approved British monopoly which was heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade.