FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 183 



The Anal fin is situated about four inches in front of the 

 tail, four inches long, one inch high. 



The Caudal fin is composed of two lobes ; the lower lobe 

 is seven inches long, nine high ; the upper, falciform, its great- 

 est depth eleven inches, six and a half inches in its middle, 

 two and a half inches at the extremity ; greatest depth across 

 both lobes, sixteen and a half inches. 



The body of the fish is terminated on the back, by a semi- 

 circular ridge ; a depression of two and three quarter inches 

 in extent, is seen just back of this, between it, and the tail, 

 at the origin of which is quite a concavity. At the termina- 

 tion of this depression, the caudal fin commences, exhibiting 

 at its origin, a very abrupt prominence. 



The ichthyologist will observe that I have made no men- 

 tion of a triangular process which is found upon the inferior 

 portions of the upper lobe of the tail, within a few inches of 

 its extremity ; the tip of the tail of my specimen „had been 

 removed, probably in some encounter ; its upper edge had 

 healed over, but a portion of a denuded vertebra was left ex- 

 posed, and the lower edge of the wound was not healed. So 

 that the tail was probably several inches longer previous to 

 the injury. 



In the ninth volume of the " Medical Repository ^''^ pub- 

 lished in New York in 1805, is a very imperfect description, 

 together with a rude figure of this species taken near Long 

 Island. Dr. Mitchell when he wrote that description, supposed 

 it to be a new species. He was afterward satisfied how- 

 ever that it was not a new fish, as we may fairly infer, by his 

 extracting a portion of this description, into his paper upon the 

 '' Fishes of New York," and placing it under the head of 

 '' Sqiialus vulpes,^'' without making any reference to his for- 

 mer remark " that it is evidently a different species from that 

 figured and noticed by Pennant in his British Zoology." 



