NOTES ON FISHES OF THE DELAWARE RIVER. 839 



thelidcB, I forwarded the specimens to him, and give herewith extracts 

 from his two letters concerning them. He wrote me, " Three specimens 

 are Ichthelis incisor and two Pomotis auritus. I am astonished at finding 

 I. incisor in the Dehiware, and congratulate yon on your discovery." A 

 few days later, having sent additional specimens, he wrote, " They are, 

 both of them, fine specimens of I. incisor, and I think you have estab- 

 lished the fact of their occurrence in the Delaware River, as these, with 

 the three, make five from your place — an unusual number if they were 

 stragglers." 



During the past summer I was not able to find any additional specimens ; 

 but from a description of a "peculiar sunfisii" given me by an observing 

 friend, I am satisfied at least one other was taken in August last, while 

 fishing for white perch. If such really was the case, it makes the sixth 

 specimen from the Delaware, and, curiously enough, the locality whence 

 the supposed sixth specimen was taken was within a hundred yards of 

 that, where I procured the five specimens forwarded to Mr. Bliss. 



The spotted sunfish {Enneacanthus guttatus) is well known throughout 

 central New Jersey, and is as abundant in the small weed-choked 

 streams as the first two of our list are numerous in the clear ponds and 

 the river. In an article on our fresh- water fishes, published in the 

 American Naturalist, vol. iv, p. 386, I considered the little sunfish de- 

 scribed by Dr. Morris, as Pomotis guttatus, as distinct from Bryttus 

 obesus Girard; and since then, I have found, in some small streams, a 

 great abundance of specimens identical with the description of Bryttus 

 obesus given by Baird in the Smithsonian Annual Report for 1854, p. 

 324 ; and at other times, in other creeks, and occasionally in the river, 

 collected many dozens of fish, I am sure are identical with Morris's 

 P. guttatus. As alcoholic specimens, the two species (?) cannot be dis- 

 tinguished; but when living, there is a variation in color, but scarcely 

 so decided as to warrant Professor Cope in saying of the two supposed 

 species, that they are " readily distinguished in life." As in the case of 

 Ichthelis rubricauda and appendix I find a gradual merging of one style 

 of coloration into the other, and separate the two varieties or species, 

 as I understand them, by the guttatus having the anterior rays of the 

 ventral fin, jiure white, opaque, and succeeded by two rays of jet black; 

 the remainer of the fin being of a dull reddish hue; and by the anal 

 fin having also this dull red tinge, instead of greenish, as in obesus. The 

 spots on the body of the fish in guttatus, too, are a bright golden, and 

 more numerous and irregular than the purplish dots on the obesus. 



The banded sunfish {Mesogonistius chcetodon), now very common, is 

 well known from the demand for it for stocking small aquaria. It ap- 

 pears to be steadily on the increase in certain ponds and small creeks 

 in Central New Jersey. I have since then noted nothing peculiar in its 

 habits not already given in the fourth volume of the American Natural- 

 ist, and Hardwicke's Science Gossip (London) for February, 1872. This 

 sunfish never reaches a greater length than three inches, and has no 

 value whatever as an article of food. 



