after thomas bewick retired from business in favour of his son, he continued, till his death, to employ himself closely, at home, in filling-up gaps in his history of british birds; and, in conjunction with his son, he also commenced a history of british fishes. the finished specimens of these, on the wood, are now for the first time published in this memoir. a portion of a series of appropriate vignettes, also executed by him for the work on fishes, are now employed as embellishments in the preceding pages. about twenty of the set, together with six new birds, were printed in the last edition of the history of birds. it may be proper to add, that the late robert elliot bewick left about fifty highly-finished and accurately-coloured drawings of fishes from nature, together with a portion of the descriptive matter relating to the work.