348 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



sufficiently mark this spot — that from this pond a few 

 fish were purloined by idle boys, and transported to the 

 adjoining ditches, from which the present stock has 

 sprung. 



Owing to the long continuance of very dry weather, the 

 ditches are now much lower than I ever remember them to 

 have been ; this the coloured boys take advantage of, and, 

 with the aid of a small scoop net, capture many of these 

 Golden Carp, which are carried from house to house for 

 sale. The fish are of all sizes, from two to seven or eight 

 inches in length, the smaller ones being of a brown colour, 

 from which I conclude that they do not assume the golden 

 hue until they arrive at a certain age and size. They have 

 all a small tubular projection on the nostrils, which is 

 described in " Pennant's Zoology " as forming a " sort of 

 appendage above the nose." Some of them are beautifully 

 spotted with black. 



It is curious, in these islands, where brooks and springs of 

 fresh water are entirely unknown, and where until of late 

 years no attempt to drain the marshes had taken place, to 

 find a fresh-water fish so soon occupying the only waters — 

 brackish though they be — in which it could exist. 



I have known this fish to be destroyed by the tidal 

 waters of the ocean about the upper part of White's Marsh, 

 the lower part of which may be considered as the outward 

 limit of its range ; from thence it extends through all the 

 ditches to the head of the Governor's, or Pembroke 

 Marsh. 



August 22nd. — Examined a specimen of the Cat Phoebe 

 of Bermuda, caught by Mr. Fozard. It was broadly 

 banded with brown on a yellowish ground (like the Perch 

 of England), and had spots and streaks of light blue on 

 each side and below the eye. — Irides white. 



