264 Ayres' Fishes of L. I. 



Lebias ellipsoides. Le Sueur. 



This fish, described by Le Sueur from specimens received 

 from Florida, is found in Old Man's Harbor, though never in 

 great numbers. They make their appearance in May, and 

 are at that season of the year commonly seen in pairs, in the 

 shallow creeks of the harbor. Their motions are very pecu- 

 har ; owing to the thick and almost inflexible structure of 

 their body ; the only parts available for swimming are the cau- 

 dal fin and the extreme posterior portion connected with it. 

 These are vibrated with great rapidity, and the movements of 

 the fish appear consequently to be performed with much vig- 

 or, though their speed is rather small. They are tyrannical 

 in their disposition, attacking and pursuing whatever other 

 species come near them. The back of the male presents re- 

 flections like those of polished steel, and when exposed to the 

 rays of the sun in clear water, their appearance is very brill- 

 iant. Le Sueur in his description, which in other points is 

 most beautifully accurate, says, that the ventrals extend to the 

 anal. This cannot be relied on ; I have one specimen in 

 which they extend so as to touch the anal, another, in Avhich 

 they extend nearly to it, and others in which they reach hard- 

 ly half the distance from their origin to the origin of the anal. 

 His conjecture, as to the scales on the operculum, is correct ; 

 they exist, but are very deciduous. His description must have 

 been drawn from a full grown specimen. The young of this 

 species is MitchilPs Esox ovinus ; it difiers from the adult in 

 color (being lighter) and possibly also in being a little more 

 plump and rounded. It, however, shows plainly the remark- 

 able teeth which characterize the genus. The only point in 

 which it does not agree with Dr. Mitchill's account of the L. 

 ovinus is in respect to the lateral line ; he says, this is plain 

 and straight ; these fish show no traces of any lateral line 

 whatever, in which they agree with Mitchill's figure. 



[To be Continued.] 



