72 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



equal to the length of its base ; the first simple, very sliort ; the remaining branched rays 

 twelve. Caudal somewhat lunulated, of seventeen rays, the exterior simple. 



The gall-bladder long and tubular. Four cascal appendages. The intestine makes two 

 convolutions. Air-bladder very thick, and of the shape represented in the figure ; on its inner 

 surface is a long red glanular body, the uses of which have not been ascertained. 



Color. Bluish above, with irregular transverse series of dark spots on the back and sides. 

 Summit of the head greenish blue ; interior of the mouth with a yellowish tinge. Irides 

 yellow. Gill-covers and inferior surface silvery lustrous. Chin with bright salmon-colored 

 tints. Upper vertical fin and the caudal fin brownish. Pectoral fins brownish yellow. Ven- 

 trals and anal orange. 



Length, 13-0. Depth, 3-0. 



Fin rays, D. 8.1.28; P. 18; V. 1.5; A. 13; C. 17. 



The Weak-fish, so called from the feeble resistance it makes on the hook, and the facility 

 with which it breaks away from it, by reason of its delicate structure, was formerly one of 

 our most common salt-water fishes. The average size is not more than six or eight inches, 

 but I have been informed of one weighing thirty pounds. Of late years, it has greatly dimi- 

 nished in numbers on our coast ; and as the Tenmodon saltator or Blue-fish of the south has 

 appeared here in great numbers, the disappearance of the former is supposed to be in some 

 way connected with the appearance of the latter. Dr. Storer has made a similar observation 

 on the coast of Massachusetts. 



The aboriginal name given to this fish liy the Narragansets was Squeteaugue, corrupted 

 into Squettee ; the Mohegans named it Checouts. Although extensively eaten, it may be 

 ranked among those of a secondary quality. 



Its extreme northern range yet ascertained, extends to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is not 

 uncommon at New-Orleans, where it is called Trout, and has been captured at Martinique. 



(EXTRALIMITAL.) 



O. carolinensis. (Ccv. et Val. Vol. 9, p. 475.) Scales small; more than eighty in a longitudinal 

 line. Blue on the back, with silvery reflexions. Anal blackish blue. D. 10,1.27; A. 1.11. 

 Length fourteen inches. South-Carolina. 



O. drummondi. (Richardson, F. B. A.) Slender. Two distinct rows of teeth in the upper jaw. 

 Caudal rounded. Anal 1 . 8. Length eleven and a half inches. New-Orleans. 



