864 



UNITE© STATESi 



sect. The fish whose mouth he inhabits comeSj 

 tibout the same time with the shad, into the rivers of 

 Virginia from the ocean, and continues to travel up- 

 wards from the beginning of March to the middle of 

 May ; as long as they are caught upon their passage 

 lip the river, they are found fat and full of roe. 

 Every fish which I saw had the oniscusin his mouth ; 

 and I was assured, not only by the more ignorant 

 fishermen, but by a very intelligent man who came 

 down now and then to divert himself with fishing, 

 that in forty years observation, he had never seen a 

 bay ale wife without the louse. The shad begin to ■ 

 return from the fresh water lean and shotten^ about 

 the end of May and beginning of June, and continue 

 descending during the remaining summer months. 

 No one attempts then to catch them, for they are 

 unfit for the table. Whether the bay alewife returns 

 with the shad I could not learn, but it is certain, that 

 after June it is not thought worth the trouble to catch 

 them. No one could tell me fiositively whether the 

 oniscus still continues with them, but it was the 

 opinion of my informant that, like every other para- 

 site, he deserts his protector in his reduced state, for 

 he could not recollect that he had ever seen him in 

 the mouth of those accidentally caught in the seine in 

 July or August. 



The oniscus resembles the minion of a tyrant in 

 other respects, for he is not without those who suck 

 him. Many of them have two or three leeches on 

 their bodies, adhering so closely, that their removal 

 ,costs them their heads. 



Squid^ ink Jish^ or cuttle fish, ( Befiia.) 



A beautiful species of the cuttle fish is sometimes 



