140 UMBRINA ALBURNUS. 



Habits. The ^Jliiting remains with us all the year round, and although few 

 are taken in December and January, yet they are sufficient to prove its constant 

 residence near Charleston. In the spring and summer months they are very 

 abundant; they enter the mouths of bays and rivers, and are captured in great 

 numbers. They take the hook readily; their favorite bait is the shrimp, and, 

 being a strong, lively, active animal, they afford much sport to the fisherman. 

 They prefer deep and running waters, and seldom approach so near the shore 

 as to be taken in seines. Their ordinary food seems to be various species of 

 smaller fish, shell-fish, &c. 



Geographical Distribution. The Umhrina alburnus inhabits the Southern 

 waters, from Cape Fear in North Carolina to Cape Florida. 



General Eemarks. The first notice of this animal occurs in Catesby's 

 Histoiy of Carolina, &c., where it is called Alburnus Americanus, or Carolina 

 IV/iiting ; his description is short, very imperfect, and the figure accompany- 

 ing it hardly to be recognized, as it represents a portion of the posterior 

 dorsal fin closed, so as to make it appear altogether wanting. 



Linnaeus, in his Systema Natura, gives a much better description of it, from 

 recent specimens furnished him by Dr. Garden, an accurate naturalist, and at that 

 time a resident of Charleston. Linnaeus, however, does not mention the barbel at 

 the chin, one of its most important generic characters, but describes it as a Perch, 

 Perca alburnus, which specific name has ever since been applied to it by suc- 

 ceeding ichthyologists. 



The history of this fish, really so simple, has been made a little complicated by 

 some naturalists, who have confounded it with a Northern animal, a different 

 species, the Umbrina nebulosa of Mitchill. 



SchoepfF, a German naturalist, and surgeon to one of the Hessian regiments 

 during the war of the Revolution, resided for some time on Long Island and in 



