A CUBAN FISHERMAN. 171 
Felipe Poey y Aloy was born in Havana, May 26, 
1799. His father was French, his mother Spanish; 
but Poey early renounced his French citizenship 
for that of Cuba. His education was received in 
Havana, and after studying law he became, in 
1823, an advocate in that city. But his tastes lay 
in the direction of natural history, and for this 
he gradually abandoned his practice as a lawyer. 
Very early he had made discoveries of mollusks, 
insects, and especially of fishes, which were new 
to science. In 1825 he was married to Maria de 
Jésus Aguirre, a very intelligent lady who is still 
the companion of his studies. In 1826 he sailed 
for Paris, taking with him eighty-five drawings of 
Cuban fishes and a collection of thirty-five species, 
preserved in a barrel of brandy. These drawings 
and specimens he placed at the service of Cuvier 
and Valenciennes, who were then beginning the 
publication of their work on the “ Natural History 
of the Fishes.” The notes and drawings of Poey 
proved of much service to the great ichthyologists. 
A few new species were based on them, and Poey 
had the satisfaction of finding his own name and 
observations cited by Cuvier and Valenciennes 
even more frequently than those of his famous 
predecessor, Don Antonio Parra,! who had pub- 
lished, in 1787, the first account of the Fishes of 
Cuba.2 A set of duplicates of these notes and 
drawings is still retained by Professor Poey. While 
1 Y tuve el honor de ser citado por él (Cuvier) y por su co- 
laborador Valenciennes, mas frecuentemente que D. Antonio 
Parra. — PoEy. 
2 Diferentes Piezas de Historia Natural de la Isla de Cuba. 
