208 



CYPRINID^. 



AMERICAN BEEAM. 



A hram Is Versicolor — Agassi z. 



American Bream. 



The Bream of America, of which there are several inferior 

 species, like the others of this family which I have enumerated, 

 never grows to any size, and is very little accounted by the 

 angler in general, though in some of the western waters, where 

 they bite freely, they are sometimes angled for with the small 

 red worm, and are accounted a delicate pan-fish. 



They are distinguished from the other Cypi'ini, by the great 

 depth of their bodies, by having the dorsal set very far back, 

 behind the extremity of the ventral, and by the great length of 

 the dorsal fin. 



The tongue is smooth, as well as the jaws and palate, but the 

 lower pharyngeal bones are set with large teeth. 



Like the other Cyprini, the Breams are among the least car- 

 nivorous of fishes. 



This is a beautiful species. The back is dark, of a hair-brown 

 hue, varied with many coloured changeable reflexions ; the sides, 



