26 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



would at once distinguish ours ; but his observations necessarily relate to specimens 

 preserved in spirits, and his correspondents may readily have committed errors in 

 their accounts of species so similar to each other. His Pomotis Catesbei " se 

 distingue de toutes les autres par les lignes brunes et obliques des joues," but its 

 form is lengthened. In ours the side of the head is ornamented by alternate wavy 

 lines of azure blue and gall-stone yellow. I have to remark, that my account of 

 the colours was noted down after comparing the fresh specimen with Syme's book 

 of colours, but that the artist, having no other guide than my brief description, has 

 fallen far short of the beauty of the original tints and markings. Our figure, how- 

 ever, does every justice to the form of the fish, and agrees minutely with the 

 measurement of the specimen, in which no traces remained of the original brilliant 

 colouring. Mr. Todd was informed by the natives, that many small land-locked 

 lakes or ponds, in the vicinity of Lake Huron, contain no fish whatever but the 

 Perca flumatilis and this jiomotis. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a recent specimen taken at Penetanguishene, April 20, 1825. 



Colour. — Back and sides for a short space below the lateral line blackish-green, thickly 

 interspersed with ill-defined, roundish spots of deep bluish-grey and gall-stone yellow (one 

 on the middle of each scale), and also with some obscure tints of indigo-blue. On the cheeks 

 and gill-covers the blue tints are brighter, approaching to azure, and are disposed in longitudinal 

 wavy lines alternating with gall-stone yellow. The lower parts of the sides are lighter than 

 the back, and exhibit some greenish reflections with larger and more distinct roundish spots 

 of yellow. The belly presents the pure gall-stone yellow without spots. On the tip of the 

 gill-cover there is a large bluish-black spot, edged posteriorly with bright scarlet. The irides 

 are silvery shaded with yellow. 



Form. — Profile broadly oval, the anterior apex rather acute and formed by the lower jaw, 

 which projects slightly bevond the upper one : the posterior apex of the oval is lost imme- 

 diately behind the dorsal and anal fins in the slightly tapering tail, whose height is one-third 

 of that of the body. The height of the body is greatest at the fourth or fifth dorsal spine, 

 where it measures three inches and three quarters, and the long axis of the oval, from the chin 

 to the setting-on of the tail, is five inches and a half. The height is to the whole length, 

 excluding the caudal fin, as 3"7 to 7 *. The body is much compressed ; its greatest thickness 

 is on a level with the tip of the gill-cover, or in the middle of the height, and does not exceed 

 an inch : the ridge of the back is acute, the belly is obtuse, being nearly an inch broad. The 

 lateral line is arched, gradually though slightly approaching the back as it recedes from the 

 operculum, until it arrives opposite to the posterior part of the dorsal fin : it is there broken 

 by two or three successive descents of a scale's breadth each, and afterwards takes a straight 

 course along the middle of the tail : it is marked out by a tube on the basal half of each scale. 



* In P. vulgaris (C. et V., vii., p. 465) " sa hauteur fail la moitie de sa longueur, la caudate non comprise.'' 



