49 



name of Crysodoiita. Additional observa- 

 tions on this highly interesting animal are 

 to be found in the Transactions of the re- 

 spective societies of Philadelphia and New-' 

 York. 



Fishes, From the nature of the medium 

 in which these animals exist, and the con- 

 sequent difficulty of studying their peculiar 

 habits, and Hkewise from the limited obser- 

 vations which have hitherto been made, to 

 determine such differences as may depend 

 on age or sex, this branch of Natural 

 Science perhaps presents less of interest 

 to the philosophical inquirer. The artifi- 

 cial and highly complex systems of Bloch, 

 Schneider, and Lacepede, and even the 

 more philosophical arrangement proposed 

 by Cuvier, have all failed to a certain ex- 

 tent in securing the requisite support of 

 naturalists. Hence the confusion in this 

 department is such, that it is often difficult 

 to determine with much accuracy the spe- 

 cies designated by our predecessors. Un- 

 der all these disadvantages, they have been 

 very industriously studied by Mr. Lesueur 

 of New Harmony, and his descriptions, with 

 his excellent figures, have furnished many 



a 



