AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 451 



TJieBull Head {Coitus Virginianus)^ is universally known over the 

 whole continent, being adapted to all latitudes. It is a disgust- 

 ing looking fislij having an olive colored body, with a black back. 

 The head is out of proportion to the rest of the body, and has a 

 long, sickle-shaped spine on each side of it. They seldom exceed 

 twelve inches in length. The habit of this fish, when about to 

 deposit its ova, is to build a regular nest in the mud, which it 

 carefully Fines with aquatic grass; in this the female deposits her 

 eggs, which in due time hatch, and are protected with great care 

 and apparent anxiety by both male and female, until large enough 

 to look out for themselves. These nests may be found all along 

 the shores of the Hudson river. When taken from the water it 

 grunts, by inflating the gills and muscles of the mouth. 



The Sucker {Cyprinus Teres.) — This is a still, dingy-colored, 

 lazy fish, and is particularly fond of basking in the sun, with its 

 head towards the inlet, holding on by suction to some stone or 

 root. Its mouth is shaped much like that of the sturgeon — the 

 eyes are very large and without eyelids. Suckers sometimes grow 

 sixteen inches in length in my ponds, and weigh one and a half 

 pounds, but their flesh is not much prized as food. I have exam- 

 ined this fish thoroughly, and find his organs have not the least 

 connection with those of respiration, his olfactory nerves are very 

 large, and have, on that account, been taken for his brain, and 

 he has no external ear; he has three winding tubes in his head, 

 which terminate in a bag filled with nervous marrow, containing 

 three hard bones — this constitutes the whole organ of hearing — 

 and the organ of taste is more imperfect still ; the tongue has not 

 even the papillae, and the nerves branch off" to the gills ; the mo- 

 tion of the heart is far more independent of the spinal marrow 

 and brain than in the higher orders of animals, and possesses mo- 

 tion for a very long time after the brain is destroyed. 



These remarks apply to nearly all fish — at least I have not 

 found an exception in my examination. The first impulse in 

 swimming comes from the tail, which, with its fin, serves as a 

 rudder, to give direction to the motions of the fish, and the other 

 fins regulate the position, and guide him through his native ele- 

 ment. Fish smell the bait mucli further than they can see it, 

 and I have no doubt, from experiments that have been tried in 



