Miscellanies. 393 



Vieiliot, in 1807, from specimens obtained in St. Domingo. It has, 

 however, been for many years past known as a resident of the Rocky 

 Mountains, from which region it has gradually moved eastward, and 

 has been successively discovered in Kentucky, upon the banks of the 

 Ohio, in New York, Maine, and of late in other New England states, 

 their appearance being followed by the partial exclusion of the barn 

 swallow. The nest, generally found in colonies, but occasionally 

 solitary, is composed of clay, having the form of an inverted retort 

 bulb, the mouth being below and the interior lined with soft sub- 

 stances. 

 Nov. 20, 1839. — George B. Emerson, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Amos Binney, Esq., made a report on the volume entitled. Reports 

 on the Fishes, Reptiles and Birds of Massachusetts, giving a detailed 

 account of the history and progress of these Reports, and entering 

 into a critical examination of their contents. 



The report on Fishes by Dr. Storer, makes up the greater part of the 

 volume, and constitutes an important contribution to American natural 

 history. Considering the short period of time allowed for its comple- 

 tion, it is exceedingly creditable to the author's science, and to his dili- 

 gence and perseverance. A new impulse has latterly been given to the 

 study of ichthyology, by the publication of the works of Cuvier and Va- 

 lenciennes, and of Yarrell. The cultivators of science will hail the pres- 

 ent work with pleasure, as coming from a country whose ichthyology 

 was not long since pronounced by Cuvier to be a desideratum in natu- 

 ral history. But its appearance has an importance at this time inde- 

 pendent of its own particular merits, since it will serve as an effective 

 check to the propagation of the mistakes and impositions of another 

 work on Massachusetts fishes, which has already been quoted by re- 

 spectable authors, and^ which was thus beginning to introduce confu- 

 sion and error into science. 



Of the small number of fishes appertaining to our territory, the whole 

 number described being one hundred and nine, it is truly wonderful that 

 they comprise all those genera and many of the species which contrib- 

 ute so largely to the subsistence of mankind, and which have f(jr ages 

 furnished the materials of an important branch of the commerce of 

 nations. The pages of this work furnish ample proof of their impor- 

 tance to our community, by making known the fact that there are eigh- 

 teen species which are objects of extended trade, and fifty-nine addi- 

 tional species, which, distributed by the bountiful hand of nature in 

 countless numbers in the sea and fresh waters, and within reach of the 

 poorest citizen, are or may be used as wholesome and nutritious food ; 

 while there only thirty-three species, which from their diminutive 

 size, their hideous form, their coarse structure, or from some prejudice 



Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2.— Jan.-March, 1840. 50 



