72 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
equal to the length of its base ; the first simple, very short; the remaining branched rays 
twelve. Caudal somewhat lunulated, of seventeen rays, the exterior simple. 
The gall-bladder long and tubular. Four cecal appendages. The intestine makes two 
convolutions. Air-bladder very thick, and of the shape represented in the figure ; on its inner 
surface is a long red glanular body, the uses of which have not been ascertained. 
Color. Bluish above, with irregular transverse series of dark spots on the back and sides. 
Summit of the head greenish blue; interior of the mouth with a yellowish tinge. Irides 
yellow. Gill-covers and inferior surface silvery lustrous. Chin with bright salmon-colored 
tints. Upper vertical fin and the caudal fin brownish. Pectoral fins brownish yellow. Ven- 
trals and anal orange. 
Length, 13°0. Depth, 3°0. 
Fin rays, Di 8-128); 1S Vedios An la C. lif. 
The Weak-fish, so called from the feeble resistance it makes on the hook, and the facility 
with which it breaks away from it, by reason of its delicate structure, was formerly one of 
our most common salt-water fishes. ‘The average size is not more than six or eight inches, 
but I have been informed of one weighing thirty pounds. Of late years, it has greatly dimi- 
nished in numbers on our coast; and as the Temnodon saltator or Blue-fish of the south has 
appeared here in great numbers, the disappearance of the former is supposed to be in some 
way connected with the appearance of the latter. Dr. Storer has made a similar observation 
on the coast of Massachusetts. 
The aboriginal name given to this fish by the Narragansets was Squeteaugue, corrupted 
into Squettee ; the Mohegans named it Checouts. Although extensively eaten, it may be 
ranked among those of a secondary quality. 
Its extreme northern range yet ascertained, extends to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is not 
uncommon at New-Orleans, where it is called Tyowt, and has been captured at Martinique. 
(EXTRA-LIMITAL.) 
O. carolinensis. (Cuv. et Vat. Vol. 9, p. 475.) Scales small; more than eighty in a longitudinal 
line. Blue on the back, with silvery reflexions. Anal blackish blue. D. 10.1.27; A. 1.11. 
Length fourteen inches. South-Carolina. 
O. drummondi. (Ricuarpson, F.B. A.) Slender. Two distinct rows of teeth in the upper jaw. 
Caudal rounded. Anal 1.8. Length eleven anda half inches. New-Orleans. 
