and Labrador, with Descriptions of New Species. 257 
“3. That the G. biaculeatus of Mitchill is another species, 
which may perhaps be the one referred to by Forster, Pen- 
nant, and Shaw, though we cannot now tell. 
* 4. And that De Kays G. biaculeatus is not Mitchill’s 
species, unless Mitchill had not the full grown fish, which 
may be the case, but which can be ascertained but by en- 
deavoring to find it again and comparing it. For these ven- 
trals, composed of a single but strong and serrated spine, that 
body entirely covered with bony plates, and that size of two 
inches and a half, make a fish of very different aspect from 
what we must infer from Mitchill’s description. That it is 
not Cuvier's biaculeatus, De Kay himself remarked: “I can- 
not reconcile,” he says, “the Epinoche à deux épines of 
Cuvier and Valenciennes with its naked tail and its robust, 
flat, and sharp tooth at the internal base of the ventral spines 
on each side, with our New York species."  Mitchill speaks 
of his G. biaculeatus as being of very small size, and nowhere 
can we find any allusion made as to whether the body be 
naked or covered with plates. 
“As for Cuvier’s biaculeatus, we know that the tail is 
naked, whence the inference that the anterior part of the’ 
body is protected by plates, which is precisely the case with 
our Labrador species. Therefore I consider it the same fish, 
and as the name of biaculeatus must be retained for Mitchill’s 
species, I shall describe it under the name of Gasterosteus 
Cuvieri, and in such a manner as will, I hope, enable natur- 
alists to'make minute comparisons with any other Stickleback 
having two spines in front of the dorsal fin. ; 
“ Total length of fish nearly two inches and a half, that is 
to say, of the size of the G. biaculeatus of De Kay, but very 
much more slender, although equally compressed, and a little 
larger than the specimens examined by Cuvier. The greatest 
depth of the body, taken perpendicularly to the second 
Spinous ray of the back, is when compared with the total 
length as 1 to 51; the thickness in the same region is equal 
to half the depth. The posterior half of the body is naked. 
