314 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



able edible fishes, both of the fresh and salt ivaters. The Amphipods, though 

 mostl}" 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, aud 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, scup, &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 Smith, (Plate IV, fig. 14,) which has 

 received this name in allusion 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 omatus, (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 Smith, frequently oc- 

 curs under stones in similar places, but usually a little 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 omatus another, much smaller, light slate- colored- 

 amphipod is generally to be found. This is the Melita nitida Smith. Its 

 habits appear to be similar to those of the Gammari. Another small 



