20 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [314] 
able edible fishes, both of the fresh and salt waters. The Amphipods, though 
mostly of small size, occur in such immense numbers in their favorite 
localities that they can nearly always be easily obtained by the fishes 
that eat them, and no doubt they furnish excellent and nutritious food, 
for even the smallest of them are by no means despised or overlooked 
even by large and powerful fishes, that could easily capture larger 
game. Even the voracious blue-fish will feed upon these small crusta- 
“cea, where they can be easily obtained, even when menhaden and other 
fishes are plenty in the same localities. They are also the favorite 
food of trout, lake white-fish, shad, flounders, seup, &c., as will be seen 
from the lists of the animals found in the stomachs of fishes. One 
species, which occurs in countless numbers beneath the masses of decay- 
ing sea-weeds, thrown up at high-water mark on all the shores by the 
waves, is the Orchestia agilis Surry, (Plate IV, fig. 14,) which has 
received this name inallusion to the extreme agility which it displays in 
leaping, when disturbed. The common name given to it is “ beach-flea,” 
which refers to the same habit. Its color is dark olive-green or brown, 
and much resembles that of the decaying weeds among which it lives, 
and upon which it probably feeds. It also constructs burrows in the 
sand beneath the vegetable debris. It leaps by means of the append- 
ages at the posterior end of the body. 
A much larger species, and one of the largest of all the amphipods, is 
the Gammarus ornatus, (Plate IV, fig. 15,) which occurs in great num- 
bers beneath the stones and among the rock-weed near low-water mark. 
The males are much larger than the females, and sometimes become 
nearly an inch and a half long. They cannot leap like their cousins 
that live at high-water mark, but skip actively about on their sides 
among the stones and gravel, until they reach some shelter, or enter 
the water, when they swim rapidly in a gyrating manner back down- 
ward, or sideways. But although they can swim they are seldom 
met with away from the shore or much below low-water mark. The 
zone of Fucus is their true home. This species is abundant on all our 
shores, wherever rocks and Fucus occur, from Great Egg Harbor, New 
Jersey, to Labrador. Its color is generally olive-brown or reddish- 
brown, much like that of the Fucus among which it lives. The only 
good English name that I have ever heard for these creatures is that of 
““scuds” given by a small boy, in reference to their rapid and peculiar 
motions. 
Another smaller species, Gammarus annulatus Surru, frequently oc- 
curs under stones in similar places, but usually alittle higher up. This 
is a pale species, having darker bands, with red spots on the sides of 
the abdomen. Still higher up, G. marinus often occurs. 
With the Gammarus ornatus another, much smaller, light slate-colored 
amphipod is generally tobefound. Thisisthe Melita nitida Smire. Its 
habits appear to be similar to those of the Gammari. Another small 
