TOP MINNOWS 405 
Hygiene, September 15, 1909, pages 271-272. A careful search was made in 
the marshes to the north and south of Larnaca, but no breeding-places of Anoph- 
eles mosquitoes were found, and subsequent search showed that the malarial 
mosquitoes were breeding in the tanks and wells of private houses. Here kero- 
sene could not be used, and the use of goldfish was advised. Wherever the advice 
was followed, the results were perfect. One well described by Williamson was 
about twenty feet deep and had a wide mouth. This well contained Anopheles 
larvee in enormous numbers, and of five persons living within its immediate 
neighborhood four became infected with malaria. This well, not being in use, 
was filled in, but a large tank which was near it was stocked with goldfish and 
all Anopheles larvee were destroyed by them. 
Sir Rubert Boyce, in his recently published volume “ Mosquito or Man?” 
(London, John Murray, 1909), calls attention to the fact that in Barbados, 
where it is a very common practice amongst the natives to keep one or two small 
goldfish in the drinking-water barrel, the native residents, in reply to the ques- 
tion as to why the fish were put in the barrels, stated that they had been taught 
to do so by their parents or grandparents for the reason that if a maliciously 
inclined neighbor should poison the water the goldfish would die, turn up and 
float on the surface, thus indicating that the water was dangerous. 
An excellent discussion of the relative value of the different small fish of the 
Atlantic coast-region for practical use against mosquito larve has been pub- 
lished by Mr. William P. Seal, a naturalist of many years experience in handling 
fishes, and the following paragraphs, taken from this article, may be considered 
as authoritative. (See Scientific American Supplement, May 30, 1908, vol. 65, 
no. 1692, pp. 351-352.) 
“ As a destroyer of Anopheles the writer has for several years advocated the 
use of Gambusia affinis, a small viviparous species of fish to be found on the 
South Atlantic coast from Delaware to Florida. A still smaller species of 
another genus, Heterandria formosa, is generally to be found with Gambusia 
and is of the same general character. The females are about one inch long, and 
the males three-quarters of an inch. Both of these species are known as top- 
minnows, from their habit of being constantly at the surface, and feeding there. 
The conformation of mouth, the lower jaw projecting, is evidence of their top- 
feeding habits. Both of these species are to be found in great numbers in the 
South in the shallow margins of lakes, ponds, and streams in the tidewater 
regions wherever there is marginal grass or aquatic and semi-aquatic vegetation. 
They are also to be found in shallow ditches and surface drains where the water 
is not foul, even where it is but the fraction of an inch deep. In fact, if any fishes 
will find their way to the remotest possible breeding places of the mosquito, it 
will be these. And they are the only ones, so far as the writer’s observation goes, 
that can be considered useful as destroyers of Anopheles larve. 
“ Gambusia is found in the Ohio Valley as far north as southern Illinois, 
where the winter climate must be at least as severe as that of the coast of New 
York and New Jersey. : a8 . : 
“ Dr, Hugh M. Smith, Deputy U. 8. Fish Commissioner, informed the writer 
that he had examined the stomachs of several hundreds of Gambusia in the 
Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound waters, and had found the contents to be 
principally mosquito larve. . . . 
