188 SILURID^E. 



barometer, as it becomes uneasy when stormy 

 weather approaches, — putting its lips above the 

 surface, as though gasping for air. We are in 

 doubt, whether the pout should be placed in the 

 genus cobitis, or in the place now assigned. At 

 all events, the same uneasiness may be observed 

 in the pout, on the approach of a change of 

 weather. 



GEN. SILURUS. 



At the moment of writing this article, Saturday 

 evening, February 22d, we have before us, in a 

 tumbler of water, a little fish of the genus silurus, 

 only an inch and a half in length, taken this morn- 

 ing from the nose of an aqueduct pump, in Blos- 

 som Street ; it must, therefore, have come from 

 Jamaica Pond, in Roxbury, about six miles through 

 the logs. 



The mouth is somewhat like the broad jaws of 

 the frog ; the eye is large and bright, the body 

 thick, through the pectoral fins ; the abdomen 

 whitish ; the back and sides a dark olive, and from 

 the lips eight cirri, or feelers shoot out ; four un- 

 der the mouth, two over the rim of the upper lip, 

 and one at each angle of the mouth, larger and 

 longer than the others. With these it is enabled 

 to catch small fishes that dart towards them, mis- 

 taking them for worms, as the pout lies quietly 

 eyeing its game. 



