150 



NATURAL HISTORY OF VERxMONT. 



Part I. 



THE BLUE I.AMPREV. 



THE MUD LAMl-KEY. 



History. — This fish is occasionally ta- 

 ken in lake Cliamplain, and is here known 

 by the name o? Rod: Sivrgeoa. It seldom 

 exceeds o feet in length or 20 pounds in 

 weiglit, iju'v, 's much more generally and 

 highly esteemed as an article of food than 

 the p-oceding species, some even ranking 

 it as one of ou/ best fishes for the table. 

 This, like tite preceding, should be skin- 

 ned before it is cooked, and for the same 

 reasons. 



II.— CYCLOSTOMID^, OR LAiMPREY 



FAMILY. 



Fishe'^ of this family have their jaws 



fixed in an immoveable ring. Their bran- 



chiDR are fixed with numerous openings. 



Genus Petromyzon. — Linnccus. 

 Generic Clmrnztcrs. — Body eel -shaped ; mouth 

 circular, armed wiih looih-likc (irocesses; lips 

 forming a conliimnus circle around the niouih ; 

 seven openings on oar.h side ef the neck, leadiiif; 

 to seven branchial Cfll.s ; no pectoral or ventral 

 fin.s ; dorsril, anal and caudal fins formed by an ex- 

 tension of the sliin on those parts. 



THE BLUE LAMPREY. 



Pclromyzim. nigricans. — Le Sueur. 



Trans. Am. Pliil. Soc. N. S.l. 335. Storcr's Rep. 197. 



Descuii'tion. — Color above dark bluish 

 gray, beneath and fins dingy white ; sev- 

 eral rows of blackish dots about the head 

 and neck. Anterior third of the body 

 cylindrical ; the posterior two-thirds flat- 

 tened laterally, and very much so towani 

 the tail ; head slightly iliittened above and 

 terminated in an obrKiuo, oval or circular 

 mouth, which is armed within with nu- 

 merous yellowish, spinous teeth, project- 

 int" from widened bases, and surrounded 

 by a fleshy lip which is margined with a 

 row of fine i^apillae ; a small white spot on 

 the top of the head between the eyes, in 

 front of whicii is a spiracle. The first 

 dorsal commences in the middle of the 

 fish, the separation between the dorsals 

 merely a notch ; the length of the first 

 dorsal contained \^ times in the second. 

 Length of the specimen before me 5 inch- 

 es,— head, to the eye, 1 inch, to the vent 

 3;^, width of the mouth .4. 



History. — The fresh water Liimpreijs^ 

 or Jjiivij>rn/-Ech, as they are more com- 

 monly called, resemble, in their habit.«, 

 the iJlood-Suckcr much more tiiau the 



ordinary fishes. They obtain their sub- 

 sistence principally by attaching them- 

 selves by their mouths to the bodies of 

 larger fishes, and drawing nourishment 

 from them by suction ; for this purpose 

 their mouth and tongue are admirably 

 adapted, the latter acting in the throat 

 like the piston of a pump, while the cir- 

 cular lips of the former adhere closely to 

 the side of the fish, and by these means 

 the softer parts of the larger fish are drawn 

 into the mouth and swallowed by the ])ar- 

 asite. When a Lamprey once fastens 

 himself, in this manner, upon a large fisli, 

 he adheres with such force as to batlle all 

 the eflbrts of the fish to rid himself of his 

 unvvelcome incumbrance. Fishes are fre- 

 (piimtly taken in tiio seine with Lampreys 

 still adhering to tiiein, and others with 

 dee|) depressed wounds uj)on their sides, 

 affording indubitable proof of their having 

 been attached. The fresh water Lam- 

 preys seldom exceed G or 8 inches in 

 length, and no account is made of them 

 as an article of food. 



Genus Ammoc(etes. — Dvmer. 

 Generic Cka.rar,Urs. — Form of the hody, the 

 branchial apertures and fins, like those of liie Latn- 

 [ircys; upper ii|) semi-circular, with a slrni^^ht, 

 transverse under lip; mouth without teeth, lait 

 ftiruished with lumicrous short membranous cirri. 



THE MUD LAMPREY. 



A rii'inocuics roncnlor. — K irtl A n d . 

 rSoslon Journal Nat. Historyj vol. III. p. 473, pi. 28. 

 Description. — Form nearly cylindri- 

 cal for two-thirds the length, then grad- 

 ually flattened to the extremity of the 

 tail, where it is quite thin ; color yellow- 

 ish brown above, gradually becoming 

 lighter towards the belly, but without the 

 dividing line between the lighter and 

 darker jjarts, mentioned by Le Sueur in 

 his description of the A. hiailor. Eyes so 

 minute as hardly to be seen by the naked 

 eye ; nostrils on a light colored disk on 

 the upper part of the head in front of the 

 eyes ; upper lip longer than the lower, in 

 the forin of a horse-shoe, protractile and 

 capable of beinir closed so as to conceal 

 the lower one; small papilla? on the in- 

 side of the lips and fringes within the 

 mouth. The branchial openings, seven 

 in number, commence below and a little 

 back of the eye, and extend backward, 

 passing obliquely downward, the aj)er- 

 tures appearing like short oblique slits. 

 Sides with an annular, or ribbed appear- 

 ance. The fin, whicli is of a dull yellow- 

 ish color, commences near the middle of 

 the back, passes round the tail and termi- 

 nates just behind the vent. About three 



