FURTHER NOTES ON NEW JERSEY FISHES. 119 
would invariably be taken. The writer took nearly fifty 
specimens with a hook, in about two hours. The “ stone- 
cat-fish” were much more active, and shy; and would not 
take the hook, until after an immense deal of nibbling tr ying 
to the patience. 
While collecting specimens in ad Brook, as mentioned 
above, the writer met with a nearly exhausted eel, into 
the left gills of which, a lamprey ( Petromyzon nigricans), 
had aid its sucking apparatus. The eel had drawn the 
lamprey by the suction power of the gill, into its throat, 
and having thus killed the lamprey, was itself nearly dead 
from endeavors to get rid of so great an incumbrance. In 
the stomachs of both the eel and the lamprey, were found 
masses of partially broken shells of minute Lymnew, show- 
ing (cireumstantial evidence) that they had been occupied 
in feeding upon the same food on the same ground, when the 
lamprey made his unfortunate attack upon the eel. Has it 
been noticed before, that the lamprey feeds upon small shells? 
Two specimens of Aphrodederus- Sayanus, were taken 
in Stony Brook, during the summer, and have been since 
kept alive in an aquarium. Soon after their capture, and 
since, one of them has exhibited the followiug "freak of 
coloration.” The specimens, while lying on the pebbles at the 
bottom of the tank, were each of a glossy black, relieved by a 
pale brown throat, well dotted with black ; and with a snowy 
white margin to the caudal fin. They were removed by a 
small net, to another tank having somewhat colder water in 
it, and immediately one of the pair became of a uniform 
pale straw color, except the black dots on the throat, and a 
narrow line running from -the lower edge of the orbit to 
the iaw. The white margin of the caudal fin was scarcely 
distinguishable from the general color of the fin and body. 
The iris became silvery, with a mere trace of yellow. In the 
course of half an hour, the tints commenced to grow deeper, 
and full two hours elapsed before the usual black hue was re- 
sumed and the two specimens became similar in appearance. 
