
18 THE COMPRESSED BURBOT OR EEL-POUT. 
the manners of the eel, by which it ae obtained the name 
of the eel-pout.” ` 
In this country, according to DeKay, we have three spe- 
cies: the Plain Burbot (Lota inornata) which is rare, the 
Spotted Burbot (Zota maculosa) which is abundant in our 
lakes, and the Compressed Burbot (Lota compressa) which 
is very rare.* DeKay, when he published the Fauna of 
New York, in the Natural History of that State, says, “the 
only two specimens described are from the Connecticut River 
and its tributaries. I know it only through the descriptions 
of Lesueur and Storer.” 
This species was first described by Lesueur from a speci- 
men taken at Northampton, Mass. The second description 
was by Dr. D. Humphreys Storer, of Boston, from a speci- 
men taken in the Ashuelot River. In his report on the Fishes 
of Massachusetts, page 134, published in 1839, he says, 
“the only specimen I have been able to see was sent me 
from Keene, N. H., taken in the Ashuelot River.” In the 
Catalogue of the Fishes of Connecticut, by Rev. James H. 
Lindsley, in the American Journal of Science and Arts (Vol. 
47, page 71) he says, "I obtained a fine specimen (Lota com- 
pressa), taken a few years since in New Canaan, Conn.” In 
Dr. Storer’s article on the fishes of Massachusetts, published 
in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences (new series, Vol. 6, part second, page 360, published 
in 1858) he says, “the one from which this description was 
taken, was brought from the Connecticut River by Thomas 
M. Brewer, M. D., of Boston." If Dr. Storer refers to two 
specimens in his reports of 1839 and 1858, we have four. 
specimens described; if to but one, only three specimens 
have ever been described so far as I can learn. 
"The specimen which I have before me was taken in Scantic 

_ *all | these ' species haro been considered by Pr: €Ó— in his Catalogue of Fishes 
with the European Burbot. Lota 
maculata an L. inornata are undoubtedly synonyms, but until farther comparisons 
ia iada d are inclined, with with Dr. Wood, to leave L. compressa as a distinct 
(scien, nnd. Miet to. question, ihe uniting of the European and American mpecies = 



