50 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



of orange ; under parts orange-3'ello\v, D. VIII — 16. 

 A. 11. Y. I. — 3. Length two and three-quarter inches. 



One specimen only of this species was obtained. It 

 was found by W. M. McLean and the writer floating dead 

 in the Madawaska River, a few miles above Edmund- 

 ston, July, 1893. As American writers report it peculiar 

 to deep lakes, it is just possible it was brought down 

 by the current from Lake Temiscouata, Quebec, fifteen 

 miles above ; but this is quite improbable. It is here re- 

 tained as a New Brunswick fish, for the writer is led to 

 believe that these fresh-water cottoids have a peculiar 

 facility of easy and natural adaptation to almost any con- 

 dition of life ; so that the same species can equally exist 

 in lake or river. 



The description and synonomy of the IJranidea of 

 iS^orth America are very much confused. Over twenty- 

 five species and a large number of varieties have been de- 

 scribed by various authors, especially by Girard in the 

 " Monograph of the Fresh-water Cottoids," but there is 

 little unanimity among them, and the whole genus needs 

 a thorough revision. They affect lakes, rivers, and cool, 

 rocky streams especially, where the}^ must form no incon- 

 siderable i^ortion of the food of larger fishes, as the 

 togue, cusk, trout, and land-locked salmon. They 

 skulk about in the shelter of bottom objects, darting 

 rapidly across interspaces, and disappearing suddenly, 

 showing in their quick and timid movements fear of lurk- 

 ing enemies. Their principal food is found adhering to 

 pebbles and rocks, or creeping on the bottom, and con- 

 sists of the aquatic larvae of the larger insects, with 

 worms and fresh-water crustaceans. Their habits, as be- 

 fore stated, and coloration, render them very incon- 

 spicuous and hard to detect ; but if a few stones be 

 turned over in the bed of almost any stream at low 



