A CUBAN FISHERMAN. l6l 



Felipe Poey y Aloy was born in Havana, May 26, 

 1799. His father was French, his mother Spanish; 

 but Poey early renounced his French citizenship 

 for that of Cuba. His education was received in 

 Havana, and after studying law he became, in 

 1823, an advocate in that city. But his tastes lay 

 in the direction of natural history, and for this 

 he gradually abandoned his practice as a lawyer. 

 Very early he had made discoveries of moUusks, 

 insects, and especially of fishes, which were new 

 to science. In 1825 he was married to Maria de 

 Jesus Aguirre, a very intelligent lady who is still 

 the companion of his studies. In 1826 he sailed 

 for Paris, taking with him eighty-five drawings of 

 Cuban fishes and a collection of thirty-five species, 

 preserved in a barrel of brandy. These drawings 

 and specimens he placed at the service of Cuvier 

 and Valenciennes, who were then beginning the 

 publication of their work on the '' Natural History 

 of the Fishes." The notes and drawings of Poey 

 proved of much service to the great ichthyologists. 

 A few new species were based on them, and Poey 

 had the satisfaction of finding his own name and 

 observations cited by Cuvier and Valenciennes 

 even more frequently than those of his famous 

 predecessor, Don Antonio Parra,^ who had pub- 

 lished, in 1787, the first account of the Fishes of 

 Cuba.^ A set of duplicates of these notes and 

 drawings is still retained by Professor Poey. While 



1 Y tuve el honor de ser citado por el (Cuvier) y por su co- 

 laborador Valenciennes, mas frecuentemente que D. Antonio 

 Parra. — Poey. 



2 Diferentes Piezas de Historia Natural de la Isla de Cuba. 



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