342 Reinarks on the Natural History of Fishes. 



a lohster-pot. and calls it the sea-sucker ; he observes, it " has a 

 mouth precisely like the fish above described," &c. ; and from the 

 fact of its being introduced here, vi^e infer it was considered a 

 neighboring species. The fish here spoken of, formed a part of 

 the collection of fishes purchased of Dr. Smith, and is the " Um- 

 b7ina nebulosa'^ described and figured by Mitchill in his " Fishes 

 of NeiD Yo7-k.'" 



The author is guilty of a gross and altogether inexcusable 

 error in the following species ; he speaks of the " Ahramis chry- 

 soptera''' — bream : now the common European bream is the 

 " Abratnis brania,'^ and as yet we know of no " abramis^' with 

 us. The " Pomotis vulgaris'^ is generally known as the bream; 

 it is the only species I ever heard of as being called bream in 

 New England, and as the ^^ Pomotis vulgaris" is not mentioned 

 in the pages under examination, the inference is irresistible that 

 what is here called ^' Abramis ch?ysoptera is the ^'- Poniotis vul- 

 gai'is." So that we have a foreign fish catalogued as being found 

 in our waters, which is included in the family Cyprinidae, order 

 Malacopterygii, instead of our own beautiful species, to receive 

 which, a genus was formed by Cuvier, and included in his fam- 

 ily Percoides, order Acanthopterygii, showing conclusively, 

 that the common name being given, the scientific name of a 

 foreign species is attached, whose common name was the same 

 as ours. 



Respecting the four following species, I have only to say, they 

 are all unknown in Massachusetts : the fishes which are known 

 as the " Roach'" and " Dace" are not the European species '^Leu- 

 ciscus rutilus" and " vulgaris," but undescribed fishes. 



The " L. alburnus" and " cephalus" I have never seen j and 

 as no foreign fluviatile species has as yet been met with in our 

 state, I feel it is just to doubt their existence. That many of the 

 Cyprinidae would thrive in our waters if transplanted to them, 

 may reasonably be concluded from the rapid increase of the 

 " Cyprinus auratus — gold fish, in our ponds ; and my friend. 

 Rev. J. E. Russell, of Salem, informs me that an English gen- 

 tleman residing in Newburgh, New York, has stocked his ponds 

 with the English carp — " Cyprinus carpio" from a few he 

 imported. 



On page 189, is a figure of the " Silurus glanis,^^ an European 

 fish, copied with considerable accuracy from S track's plates, de- 



