FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 165 



among the fishes of Ivica. In his description he says, " La 

 nagcoire aiiale est tres petite, et on ne la| decouvre qu'en la 

 rccherchant attentivement." Cuvier, in the notes to liis 

 " Regne AvimaV^ iiichides this species among those in M'hich 

 tlie anal is wanting. Yarrell, in his " British Fishes,''^ says 

 '' the anal fn is minute,'^ and considers this species and the 

 " iyphle'^ synonymous. The " Rondeletii''^ differs in several 

 prominent points from the fish I have above described. It has 

 no ridge upon the head, which is flattened ; the depth of its 

 jaws are nearly equal to the depth of its head ; its dorsal fin 

 commences on a line opposite to the anus. In our species, a 

 ridge exists upon the occiput ; the depth of the jaws does not 

 exceed in any portion one third the depth of the head ; the 

 anal aperture is opposite the middle of the dorsal fin. 



Among the earliest cultivators of Ichthyology in our coun- 

 try, no name is more prominent than that of William Dand- 

 ridge Peck. So early as the year 1794, while residing at the 

 town of Kittery in Maine, he wrote a clear and ac- 

 curate " description of four remarkable fishes, taken near the 

 Piscataqua in New Hampshire." This paper was published in 

 1804, in the 2d part of the 2d volume of the " Memoirs of 

 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," accompanied 

 with very good figures, when the early period of our country is 

 considered. The manuscript of his Ichthyological Lectures 

 also, afterwards delivered by him at Harvard University as 

 Professor of Natural History, and kindly loaned me to examine 

 by my friend, Thaddcus Wm. Harris. M. D., Librarian to the 

 University, exhibit no inconsiderable degree of research. As 

 the species described and first published by him as new, have, 

 three of them at least, been described by other naturalists un- 

 der other specific names, I feel that I am performing an appro- 

 priate duty, in connecting the name of our deceased country- 

 man, whose merits have been unjustifiably overlooked, wiih 

 one of a class of animals, whose history he so successfully 

 endeavored to elucidate. 



June 25th, 1839. By the kindness of my friend Samuel 

 Cabot, Jr.j I have received a living male specimen of this spe- 



