Remarks on the Natural History of Fishes. 341 



able to learn any thing respecting, after two years' labor, the 

 ^'■fontinalis" is omitted altogether. 



Nine pages are devoted to the " Clupea harengus^'' — Euro- 

 pean herring ; our species is the " elongata^'' described by Le 

 Sueur in the first volume of the ^^ Journal of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences.'^ 



Upon page 165, we have a figure of the ^^ Esox lucius" — 

 pickerel — whose history is spread over nearly twelve pages. Our 

 fish, is the " reticulatus," which cannot for a moment be mista- 

 ken for the European species, by any person of com.mon obser- 

 vation : we are here told that Dr. Williams, author of the history 

 of Vermont, states that the pike bears in that state the name of 

 muschilo7igae : — the maskinonge, is the " esox estor^ 



I have thought that little if any change was produced in the 

 color of our species by age ; the largest I have ever seen was as 

 brilliant as smaller specimens. I suspect the brightness of their 

 coloring depends principally upon the locality ; thus, those brought 

 from a pond in Brewster upon the Cape, which has a sandy bot- 

 tom, are perfectly beautiful ; while those caught at West Cam- 

 bridge Pond, and others in this neighborhood, are far less attrac- 

 tive in their colors. '• ^■' 



But one species of the genus ^' Belo7ie,^^ the " truncata" (Le 

 Sueur,) is found on our coast ; this however is here omitted, and 

 a foreign species is introduced, with a figure as usual from Struck. 



That one or more species of '■'■ Exocetus^'' — flying fish, ^^xe oc- 

 casionally taken on board vessels in our waters is undoubted ; but 

 that the " mesogastef is one of these species, is far from being 

 proved. 



The " Cyprinus crijsoleiicas''' could not have been known to 

 the writer of the volume before us : he says " Though we have 

 seen individuals two inches in length, they are oftener less than 

 one." Of great numbers which have fallen under my notice, the 

 average is from four to six inches. 



The '• Cyprinus ohlongus''^ and " teres^'' I have not seen : the 

 writer seems not to have known that there existed more than one 

 species of sucker ; for he says, " from the earliest period of om* 

 boyhood, we have been familiar with the fresh water sucker, a 

 lazy, still fish, of a dingy color," &c. &c. 



Under the head of " Cyprinus teres, ^^ the writer speaks of a 

 fish which was taken by the keeper of the Boston light house in 



