282 PERCOIDES. 



name to the striped basse, " Ferca Mitchilli" we 

 cannot divine ; be might with equal propriety- 

 have tacked his name to the white shark, or the 

 bones of the mastodon, and the last would have sa- 

 vored less of vanity, than the affixing his cognomen 

 to a common table fish, known from time imme- 

 morial, all over Europe. These remarks are not 

 made in a spirit of envy, nor with a disposition 

 to be disrespectful towards the memory of an emi- 

 nently distinguished American naturalist. 



We have not succeeded in procuring a single 

 specimen of the " Perca Mitckitti Interrupta" of 

 that author, nor one of the "Perca MitcMlli Alter* 

 nata" which are laid down in his communication to 

 the New York Literary and Philosophical Society. 

 And the black-harry, or hauna-MUs, or blue-fish, 

 on which considerable labor has been bestowed in • 

 the description, though successfully sought near 

 Sandy Hook, does not appear to have an abiding 

 place in Massachusetts. One old fashioned basse, 

 only, whose stripes are sometimes black and some- 

 times blue, at one time dotted, and at another pre- 

 senting interrupted lines, according to the season, or 

 its physical condition, is known to us from Cape 

 Cod to Maine. 



" If," says Governor Clinton, " the whole world 

 contains one thousand species offish, as is said, it 

 is not unreasonable to suppose the United States 



