466 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



at Cape Vincent they are common, especially in the Saint Lawrence. Nine have been brought 

 in in one day, the smallest of which weighed thirty-two pounds. They are not now, however, so 

 plentiful here as formerly. 1 At Chaumont very few are caught. Seven years ago one was 

 captured here weighing sixty-five pounds. At Sacket's Harbor very few Muskellunge are caught. 



159. THE MUMMICHOG FAMILY CYPRINODONTIDJE. 



In the brackish waters along our coast and near the months of rivers, as well as in many of 

 our fresh- water streams and lakes, are found members of the family Cyprinodontidai. These are all 

 small fishes, the size of adults, rarely exceeding four inches, never exceeding six or eight in the 

 largest of them, Fundulus majalin. In New England they are usually known by the Indian name 

 "Muminichog"; farther south by the name "Brook-fish" or "Killifish," a legacy from the early 

 Dutch colonists, and in other localities, especially in the interior, less correctly known as "Min- 

 now." 



There are some twenty species in North America, none commonly used for food, but all of 

 much more importance as food for larger fish, and frequently used for bait. The common species 

 of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, Fundulus gramJis, is known at Pensacola by the name 

 "Sac-a-lait," an unexplained French name also applied to a species of Pomoxys at New Orleans. 

 The brackish-water species breed in summer, and young are found in immense schools among 

 the eel grass and on the sandy beaches in company with the sand smelt, Menidia notatum, and the 

 allied species. 



The CyprinodontidcE are represented in California by Fundulus parvipinnis Gir., a little fish 

 very abundant in brackish waters from Santa Barbara southward, and by Cyprinodon calif or- 

 niensis Gir., a small species once found at Sail Diego. 



These fishes are particularly interesting to the physiologist, from the fact that many of 

 them are viviparous, and that the anal fin of the adult male is modified into a copulatory organ. 

 The two sexes of the species thus modified are usually very different in appearance, and might be 

 mistaken for members of different genera. Those members of the family belonging to the genera 

 Cyprinodon and Fundulus are carnivorous, while Pcemlia and Mollienesia feed upon mud. 



The famous "Blind Fish "of the Mammoth Cave, Amblyopsis spelccus, and its allies, are closely 

 allied to the Cyprinodon, though belonging to another family, Amblyopsidce. These fish are useless 

 economically, but are regarded as great curiosities, and often sold for considerable sums. 



THE BLACKFISH OP ALASKA DALLIA PECTORALIS, Bean. 

 By E. W. NELSON. 



This species, known as the "E-ruang-uk" to the Eskimo of the Lower Yukon and adjoining 

 region; "E-lo-ki-nik" to the .Mali-unit Eskimo in Kotzebue Sound region; "Chorruy Ryba" to the 

 Russian fur-traders; and "Blackfish" to American fur- traders, though insignificant in size, exists 

 in such numbers in all the grass-grown, sluggish fresh-water streams and shallow lakes from the 

 vicinity of Kotzebue Sound on the north to the mouth of the Kuskoquiin River on the south, and 

 ii]) the Yukon to the mouth of the Tanana River, and for some distance up the Lower Kuskoquim, 

 that it forms a very important source of food supply to the natives within these limits. In the low 

 country between the Lower Yukon and Kuskoquim Rivers these fish exist in greatest abun- 

 dance, and here, also, is found the most dense Eskimo population in Alaska. In this region alone 



1 By the north iihoro Indians this fish was called " Nosconouge." A very old man, the first white child born on 

 Prince Edward's Island, told Mr. McPherson that when he was-n boy, fifty years ago, the name was an Indian one, 

 and that our modern word " Musk<'l)ui>i{e " is but a corruption of the old Indian word " Nosconouge." 



