NOTES ON FISHES OF THE DELAWARE RIVER. 841 



B— NOTES ON THE WINTER HABITS OF FRESH- WATER 

 FISHES OF THE DELAWARE. 



On the 26th of January I completed a detailed notice of our percoids, 

 giving brief notice in some cases of the character of their winter haunts 

 and habits. Since then I have been engaged in studying, with all prac- 

 ticable care, the winter habits of all of our common fishes; and two 

 months of steady winter-weather have given me an opportunity to 

 accomplish considerable, but whether my statements may be of value or 

 not I leave you to judge ; but many of the facts, at least, were new to 

 me. At this time (March 23) it is still emphatically winter, the ther- 

 mometer marking 15° Fahrenheit at sunrise, and remaining at or near 

 freezing-point, except on the south sides of hills and such protected 

 localities. There have been but few mild days, and the frogs have not 

 "sung" once since last autumn — a most unusual occurrence. I give 

 these few details to show the general character of the season ; for I 

 think that the fact of its being the severest winter, with possibly one 

 exception, since 1780, makes it a very favorable one in which to deter- 

 mine the ordinary winter-habits of our fishes. I will give these notes 

 just as I took them down in my field-book on the spot, and omit refer- 

 ences to aquarial studies [)ursued in connection with field-work. These 

 will appear in due time in one or more S(;ientific journals. 



February 12, 1875. — To day I visited Watson's Creek, Mercer County, 

 and experimented in fishing with a net placed under the ice. There 

 were no means of distnrbing the fishes, if simply " at rest" in or on the 

 mud, and any that might be caught would be such as voluntarly were 

 moving to and Iro. On removing the net — a gilliug seine — there was 

 found to be a catch consisting of ten sunfish, {Pomotis aiiritus) ; one 

 banded-sunfish, {Blesoffonistius cha'todon); one very large mud-suntish, 

 {Ambloplites pomotis) ', two catfish, (ylmi^^rw.? ^.yna;?); two mullet, (^Ifoa^- 

 ostoma oblongum), and one adult roach, (Stilbe americana). The stream 

 where these fish were caught is a shallow, weed-grown watercourse, fed 

 wholly by a few springs, traversing a broad expanse of meadow and 

 emptying into the Delaware River, about one mile from its source. At 

 several other points the net was placed, and, with the exception of an 

 occasional mullet {Moxostoma oblongum) no other fishes were taken. On 

 returning to the spot where I had in the first instance been successful, 

 I placed the net again in the same position, and after a lapse of twenty 

 minutes, took seven more sunfish and several niTillet. A third trial 

 yielded but one small catfish. 



In the discovery, as it a[)peared to be, of the fact that these fishes 

 were attracted to one spot which happily I chanced upon wholly by 

 accident, and that throughout the channel of the stream there was no 

 other collection of individuals that I could discover, I believe it to be 

 true that while fishes when unable to escape from the effects of a severe 



