was also on the Council of the Medico-Botanical Society. He knew many of the leading naturalists of his day, which helped him in the production of his books and articles, notably A History of British Fishes and his 1843 A History of British Birds. Background Written sources Interest in natural history was growing rapidly in the early nineteenth century, and a number of writers sought to provide definitive lists of species found in Britain, with descriptions and other pertinent information. When Yarrell came to tackle the fishes, written sources were limited. Edward Donovan's The Natural History of British Fishes (1802–1808) was the only reasonably recent specialist book, although Thomas Pennant's British Zoology (1812) and Bewick's A Natural History of British Quadrupeds (1808) were among other publications that covered some British fish. The most notable foreign sources were the Histoire naturelle des poissons (1828–1831) by Baron Georges Cuvier and Achille Valenciennes, which contained descriptions of 5,000 species of fishes, and Marcus Elieser Bloch's beautifully illustrated, 12-volume Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische (1782–1795). The French book was important because Cuvier and Valenciennes had grouped similar species together, providing a logical order to their book. Yarrell had membership of the libraries of the British Museum and the Linnaean Society, and his friends gave him access to college collections and their own private libraries and notebooks. Yarrell personally owned at least 2000 books, of which about 80 were concerned with fish or fishing. The posthumous sale of his books raised £1100 in 1856. Other resources Yarrell was a keen fisherman, and his journeys to English south coast locations like Brighton, Weymouth and Hastings gave him direct access to fresh specimens. He also frequented fish vendors, particularly in the major London Leadenhall Market, and had a network of fisherman-naturalist contacts, eight of whom he named in the preface to his book, notably the Cornish naturalist Jonathan Couch, who provided him with many fish specimens from the southwest of England. Fellow members of the learned societies he belonged to would also have helped him with specimens. Yarrell also had 220 species of fish as preserved specimens in his personal collection, now held in the Natural History Museum. Fish were mostly preserved in spirits of wine, a strong ethanol solution, although whisky was an alternative used in Scotland. As a London-based bookseller and an active member of London's learned societies, Yarrell had contact with many fellow naturalists who