Largtf infeft rc< 

 fident in the 

 mouth of the 

 Iftl 



thought to be eY« 

 lential to its life 

 and not fepara- 

 rable without 

 deftrudlion ci- 

 ther of the fi/h, 

 *r ofitfelf. 



Delineation. 



Befcnption of 

 Linnaeus under 

 the name of 

 6mfcus Pbjfodv 



DESCRIPTION Of THE CttfPEA TYRANNCi. 



bay-alewife, (clupea nondefcripta) Arrives in very confiderable* 

 /hoals, and in fome feafons their number is almoft incredible'. 

 They are fully of the fize of a large herring, and are princi- 

 pally diftinguifhed from the herring, by a bay or red fpot above 

 the gill-fin. (fee the drawing) They are, when caught from 

 March to May, full-roed and fat, and arc at leaft as good a 

 fifh for the table as the herring. 



In this feafon, each of thefe alewives carries in her mouth an 

 infect, about two inches long, hanging with its back down- 

 wards, and firmly holding itfelf by its fourteen legs to the pa- 

 late. The fiihermen call this infect the loufe. It is with diffi- 

 culty that it can be feparated, and perhaps never without in- 

 jury to the jaws of the fifh. The fiihermen therefore confider 

 » the infect as eflential to the life of the filh ; for when it is taken 

 out, and the fifh is thrown again into the water, he is inca- 

 pable of fwimming, and foon dies. I endeavoured in nume- 

 rous in fiances to preferve both the infect and the fifh from in- 

 jury, but was always obliged either to deflroy the one, or to 

 injure the other. I have fometimes fucceeded in taking out 

 the infect in a brifk and lively ftate. As foon as he was let 

 free from my grafp, he immediately fcrambled nimbly back 

 into the month of the fifh, and refumed his pofitkm. In every 

 inftance he was difguftingly corpulent, and uupleafant to han- 

 dle ; and it feemed, that whether he have obtained his port 

 by force, or by favor, whether he be a mere traveller, or a 

 conflant refident, or what etfe may be his bufinels where lie 

 is found ; he certainly has a fat place of it, and fares lump* 

 tuoufly every day. 



The drawings annexed to this account were made from the 

 Jive infecl, and from the fifh out of whofe mouth he was taken. 

 I had no books to refer to, then ; but examining the Syfte?ua 

 Naturaof Linnaeus, I was furprized to find fo exact a defcrip- 

 tion of the infect as follows (fee Salvii editio, Holmia 176*3, 

 p. 10G0. alfo Trattner's Vienna edition, fame page). 

 *' Infecl. apt. Oniscus, Pedes XIV. 

 Antenna fetacea 

 Corpus ovale. 

 0. Pbjfodes, ubdomine fubtus nudo, Cauda ovata.. 

 Habitat in pelago \ corpus prater caput, tt caudam ultimam, 

 e.r feptem fcgmentis trunci, et quinaue Cauda. Antenna utrinquc 

 duo, brevet i Cauda folium terminate omni 'no ovatiun ; ad latera 



utrinquc 



