308 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



Color, of a fresh specimen just from the water. Slate brown above ; lighter beneath. A 

 broad black band extends from the angle of the mouth to the tail. The lateral line is placed 

 on the upper margin of this longitudinal band, where it may be indistinctly traced. Along 

 the back, a series of triangular dark colored marks like an inverted letter j^. Beneath, mot- 

 tled slate and whitish. Irides silvery; pupils black. Pectorals and ventrals edged with 

 white ; dorsal and caudal with a white border on their anterior rays, broad on the first ray, 

 and gradually diminishing and becoming effaced on the posterior rays. Tips of the caudal 

 broadly edged with white. 



Length, 16-0. Depth, 2-5. 



Fin rays, D. 33 ; P. 18 ; V. 7 ; A. 30 ; C. 18. 



This interesting species is not uncommon on the coast of Long island, and has been seve- 

 ral times brought to me by those who took it in ordinary seines. This circumstance would 

 seem to indicate that it is not as constantly attached to other species as is commonly supposed. 

 From being often found sticking to the shark, it is called in this vicinity the Shark-sucker. 

 I have seen a specimen which had ascended a considerable distance up the Hudson river. It 

 appears most commonly in July and August. The species of this genus have furnished ro- 

 mance writers, under the name of naturalists, with an abundance of marvellous anecdotes, 

 which are now generally discredited. All the species are natives of the tropical seas, and 

 they are only to be considered in the light of accidental visitors on our coast. 



THE INDIAN REMORA. 



ECHENEIS NAUCRATES. 



Echmeis nauarates. Linneus. Sch(EPFF, Beobachtungen u. s. w. Vol. 8, p. 145. 



Big Oceanic Sucker, E naucrales. MlTCHILL, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 377. 



Shipmaster Echeneis, E. id. Richardson, Faun. Bor. Am. Vol. 3, p. 266. 



Characteristics. Olive brown, without stripes. Twenty-two to twenty-four transverse plates 

 on the disk. Length thirty-one inches. 



Description. Figiire of the shield (disk) elliptical, rather inclining to oval ; its longer dia- 

 meter six and a half inches ; its shorter, two and three-quarters ; with twenty-four bars, sepa- 

 rated through the middle. Tail not convex, though my specimen may have been perhaps 

 deficient in that part. 



Color, of the head, dusky brown or olive, interspersed with whitish clouds. Belly and 

 neck dusky white, with carnation and green about the gill membrane ; and greenish along the 

 chin, cheeks, neck, pectoral fins, belly, vent and roof of the anal fin away to the tail. A 

 white longitudinal cloud on each side, near the belly. 



Length, 31 '0. Girth, 10'5. Weight four pounds ten ounces. 

 Rays, Br. 9 ; P. 19 ; V. 5 ; D. 34 ; A. 34 ; C. 21. 



