NATURAL HISTORY. 



35 



THE BOWFIN. 



BOTANY OP VERMONT. 



Genus Amia. — Linnmis. j 



Generic Chnracters.—SmaW paved teeth behind 

 tlie conical ones. Head flattened, naked, with con- 

 spicuous sutures. Twelve flat gill-rays. A lars^e 

 buckler between the branches of the lower jaw. 

 Dorsal long. Anal short. Air-bladder cellular, 

 like the lungs of re]itile.-i. 



x^i^ 



THE BOWFIN. 



Amia ocellicauda. — Ricuarbson. 



Jmia occidentalis. — DeKay. 



DESCRIPTION.-General color above, brown, 

 waved with dull bronzy yellow, approaching 

 to white on the belly, and having the sides | 

 sprinkled with yellowish white spots. Pec- 

 toral, ventral and anal fins, brownish; dor- 

 sal and caudal with alternate bars of brown 

 and brownish white. A large and con- 

 spicuous black spot near the upper part of 

 the tail, at the base of the 4th, 5th, 6th 

 and 7th rays of the caudal fin. Head 

 without scales, covered with scabrous bony 

 plates; opercules bonyj ivith membranous 

 edges. Gill-rays flat. Cartilaginous buck- 

 ler between the branches of the lower jaw. 

 Two short cirri on the upper lip. Eyes 

 moderate, deeply sunken. .Jaws broad, 

 rounded and even. A i-ow of sharp conical 

 teeth in each jaw, paved behind witli short 



blunt teeth. Scales large and thin. Late- 

 ral line distinct, nearly straight, nearest 

 the back, on the anterior part of the body, 

 crossing 70 scales, which are smaller than 

 those adjacent. Attachment of the caudal 

 fin oblique — caudal rounded. Total length 

 of the specimen before me, ly.2 inches ; 

 from the snout to the upper side of the gill- 

 opening, 4; to the beginning of the dorsal, 

 0.8 ; to the ventrals, 9 ; to the anal, 11.5 ; 

 to the lower edge of the caudal. 15 ; depth 

 behind the pectorals, 8.6. Width of the 

 head, G ; back of the pectorals, 2.6. Dis- 

 tance between the eyes, and from the orbits 

 to the end of the snout, 1.3 each ; between 

 the cirri, 0.6. Length of the dorsal fin, 

 8.7; height, 1.2, — commences midway be- 

 tween the pectorals and ventrals, and 

 reaches almost to the tail. 



Fin Rays, D. 48, P. 17, V. 7, A. ^8, C.21. 



History. — This fish abounds upon the 

 muddy bottoms and the marshy coves of 

 the southern part of Lake Champlain. It 

 is very plentiful in the vicinity of White- 

 hall, and also about the mouth of Otter 

 Creek. From its partiality to muddy bot- 

 toms, it has acquired, in many places, the 

 name of Mud Fish. From its resemblance 

 in form to the Ling, it is called in some 

 places the Scaled Ling. But its more 

 common appellation in Vermont, is that of 

 Bovfin. It attains to considerable size, 

 frequently exceeding two feet in length, 

 and weighing 10 or 12 pounds; but its flesh 

 is soft and ill flavored, very little esteemed 

 as au article of food. 



BOTANY OF VERMONT. 

 Additional to Part I., Chapter vii. 



In the first edition of my Gazetteer of 

 Vermont, published in 1824, 1 gave a sim- 

 ple catalogue of the plants then known to 

 be indigenous, in this state. The materials 

 for that catalogue were derived, principal- 

 ly, from a list of plants growing in the 

 vicinity of Middlebury, prepared by Dr. 

 Edward James, and published, in 1821, in 

 Prof. Frederick Hall's statistical account 

 of Middlebury. The additions to this list 

 were mostly furnished by Dr. William Pad- 

 dock, Prof, of Botany in the University of 

 Vermont. At that time, very little atten- 

 tion had been given to the scientific botany 

 of the state, and the whole number of plants 

 contained in my catalogue was only uO'J. 



Between 1824 and the publication of my 

 general history of Vermont, in 1842, our 

 state was explored by several eminent 

 botanists from abroad, and by a number of 

 enthusiastic disciples of Linnteus, raised up 



in our midst, by whose united labors our 

 list of known indigenous plants was greatly 

 enlarged. While engaged in collecting to- 

 gether these scattered materials, for the 

 purpose of making my Catalogue as com- 

 plete as possible, in the work I was pre- 

 paring for publication, I was so fortunate 

 as to become acquainted with the late AVm. 

 Oakes, Esq., of Ipswich, Mass. He was at 

 that time engaged in investigating the 

 botany of the western part of Vermont, 

 and he very generously undertook, for me, 

 the systematic arrangement of a complete 

 Catalogue of Vermont plants. I, there- 

 fore, put into his hands my former cata- 

 logue and all the additional materials, I 

 had accumulated, and the full and beau- 

 tifully arranged Catalogue in Part I, Chap- 

 ter VII, is the result of his labor. That 

 Catalogue contains 929 species of Vermont 

 plants, and is an honorable memorial of its 



