422 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



From an evolution stand-point, these fishes are ex- 

 ceedingly interesting, and, I may add, instructive. By 

 a " species " let me here state that nothing is meant but 

 a convenient arrangement of the various forms of animal 

 life for purposes of study; and in the "species" of cypri- 

 noids is seen only so many varied forms evolved by natu- 

 ral selection from some primitive form of omnivorous 

 fresh-water fish, from which has sprung a variety of 

 forms, through a countless series of generations, that 

 have, each in its own place and time, become suited to 

 the particular haunts they chanced to frequent or were 

 forced to occupy. Considering a " species " in this way, 

 and also bearing in mind the amount of variation seen 

 among any considerable number of individuals of any 

 one species, and knowing that varieties are steadily be- 

 coming more and more differentiated and are thus enter- 

 ing what may be termed " specific territory," I claim that 

 it is not an unwarranted use of the imagination to picture 

 to one's self a primitive, typical cyprinoid, from which 

 the sixteen so-called " species " in this neighborhood have 

 been derived. 



The Delaware River and its several tributaries in this 

 neighborhood are well supplied with that family of fishes 

 popularly known as " suckers " ; fish that are most nearly 

 allied to the cyprinoids proper, about which we have just 

 been speaking. I have always been puzzled to find the 

 merits of these great lubberly fish. The last considera- 

 tion in my mind, in studying animals, is their value as 

 food for man ; though even in this regard very little can 

 be said in favor of these abundant, but utterly stale, flat, 

 and unprofitable fish. 



Inasmuch as these same suckers, or catostomoids, are 

 among the earliest of the river fishes to come up stream 



