Fish - McCoy's Zoology

The fish plates of Frederick McCoy’s Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria occupy a distinguished place in the history of Australian natural history illustration. Published in fascicles between 1878 and 1890, the Prodromus was conceived as a comprehensive visual and descriptive record of Victorian fauna, and the ichthyological sections reflect McCoy’s determination to produce work of lasting scientific value rather than merely popular appeal.

McCoy, as founding director of the National Museum of Victoria, had access to a substantial collection of specimens and to a network of field collectors working across the colony. The fish plates were prepared from fresh or preserved specimens examined directly by McCoy and his illustrators, giving them an accuracy that distinguishes them from many natural history publications of the period that relied on earlier printed sources or inadequate descriptions. Several of the species depicted were described for science for the first time in the Prodromus itself.

The lithographic plates are large in format and were, in the finest copies, issued with hand-applied colour that brings out the distinctive markings, fin structure and overall form of each species. The colouring of fish presents particular difficulties for natural history illustrators: the iridescence and colour-change that characterise many species in life cannot be fully captured by any static medium, but the best of the McCoy plates come remarkably close, using layered washes and careful stippling to suggest the luminosity of the living animal.

The species represented range across the freshwater fishes of Victoria’s river systems — Murray cod, golden perch and their relatives — to the marine species of Port Phillip Bay and the open coast. This breadth reflects McCoy’s systematic ambitions and gives the collection as a whole a representative character that more narrowly focused publications lack. Individual plates can be collected for their depiction of a particular species of interest, or assembled into a broader survey of Victorian ichthyology as understood in the colonial period.

The scientific authority of these plates has not diminished with time. The Prodromus is held in major natural history libraries worldwide and the plates are cited in the taxonomic literature of Australian fishes. Original examples — whether in the form of complete fascicles or individual plates extracted from bound copies — are considerably scarcer than the bird and mammal illustrations that dominate the natural history print market, making them an attractive proposition for collectors who seek material that combines genuine rarity with strong visual presence.

For those drawn to Australian colonial science, the McCoy’s Zoology fish plates offer a direct connection to the intellectual world of nineteenth-century Melbourne, a city that took its scientific institutions seriously and invested in publications that could stand comparison with the great natural history works of Europe. As framed works they have an immediate decorative appeal; as historical documents they record a moment in the systematic understanding of Australian wildlife that remains foundational to the field.