282 PERCOIBES, 



name to the striped basse, " Perca 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 Mitchilli Interrupta" of 

 that author, nor one of the "Perca Mitchilli Alter- 

 nata" which are laid down in his communication to 

 the New York Literary and Philosophical Society. 

 And the Mack-harry , or hauna-hills , 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 



