174 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



ABDOMINAL 

 MALACOPTERYGII. 



CYPRINID/K. 



AMERICAN BREAM. 



Abramls Versicolor ; AgassK. 



The Bream of America, of which there are several inferior species, 

 like most others of this family which I have enumerated, never grows 

 to any size, and is very little accounted by the angler in general, 

 though in some of the western waters, where they bite freely, they 

 are sometimes angled for with the small red worm, and are accounted 

 a delicate pan-fish. 



They are distinguished from the other Cyprini, by the great depth 

 of their bodies, by having the dorsal set very far back, behind the 

 extremity of the ventral, and by the great length of the dorsal fin. 



The tongue is smooth, as well as the jaws and palate, but the 

 lower pharyngeal bones are set with large teeth. 



Like the other Cyprini, the Breams are among the least carnivo- 

 rous of fishes. 



This is a beautiful species. The back is dark, of a hair-brown hue, 

 varied with many colored changeable reflections ; the sides golden 

 yellow, and the belly silvery white ; the dorsal and caudal fins biown ; 

 the otl'ers yellowish, tinged with red 



