minnows without alarming them; and cautiously approach

head of the fish that is This they generally com

ing from behind, they seize the scarcely extruded from the mud. pletely sever from the body, cast aside, and then draw from the mud the decapitated body. We doubt the ability of this turtle to catch a mud-minnow not concealed in the mud. When lying on the mud, like an Etheostomoid, their movements are very rapid when disturbed.

In speaking of the habits of certain species of fishes as 'mud-loving,” or dwellers in and upon mud, we really indicate merely those species that are most truly nocturnal. We judge that, to a certain extent, all fish are nocturnal. We have often noticed that fish will leap from an aquarium, if uncovered during the night; but this occurs but seldom during the day. Fishing with a line has always been more fruitful with us at night than fishing during the day; even when fishing for yellow or white perch, and other active day fish. Nets set over night entrap a greater number, and larger specimens, than when set for the same number of hours between sunrise and sunset.

These remarks are peculiarly applicable to the two Catostomoids we have mentioned above, Moxostoma oblongum and Hylomyzon nigricans. Unless quite small, less than six inches in length, these "suckers" remain quiet throughout the day; but as night approaches they leave the shallow, muddier portions of the creeks, and swim towards and into the deeper waters. About sunset we have often noticed them coming to the surface, and with their nostrils above the water, they make a low, sibilant sound, and leave in their wake a long line of minute bubbles. When attacked, as they frequently are at this time, by turtles, they give a very audible grunt, similar to that of our chub when drawn from the water. Both of these "suckers" are occasionally found, even during the day, in running water, hunting among the stones upon the bottom; but still water and soft mud are never far distant. The "suckers" of our rivers are very

different in their likes and dislikes. Coming up the stream in February and March, the large-scaled species, Teretulus macrolepidotus, and the common Catostomus Bostoniensis, seek out rapid waters, rocky bottoms, and are so active and fearless during the day, that many are seen and killed in the shallow waters they have entered. This is very noticeably the case at Trenton, New Jersey, where the Assunpink creek enters the Delaware. The "suckers" come up to the foot of the dam and congregate there in large numbers. Both of these species bite readily at a hook; but the "mullet" and "black-sucker" never do with us.

We can imagine nothing more devoid of interest than a mud-catfish (Amiurus DeKayi), at least as we have them here in New Jersey. Occasionally one of unusual size is met with to give it some characteristic worthy of attention. The largest specimen we have ever seen weighed five pounds, thirteen ounces. The greatest width of the head was five and one half inches. This species wallows in the mud in the beds of streams of all sizes; it is abundant in many of our largest creeks, in every mill-pond, and in average sized ditches with overhanging banks, this "mud-lover” frequently congregates in large numbers. It is a little curious to notice how soon matters right themselves, as to the distribution of fishes, after a freshet has subsided which had obliterated the previous boundaries. We have in mind now an extensive tract of meadow, through which meanders two rapid current creeks, and also through it are cut innumerable ditches. In these ditches dwell several mud-loving fish. Of course the freshet produces considerable of a "scatter" among them; but on the subsidence of the water we very seldom find mud cat-fish in the clear-water creeks, and the running water species caught napping in the ditches very promptly leave, as a few days suffice to restore to each locality its characteristic species.

In our report in the "Geology of New Jersey," we gave but three fresh-water siluroids. Since then we have had our

attention called to the stone cat-fish (Noturus gyrinus), from the Delaware Water Gap, Warren County, New Jersey. Besides the specimens from this locality in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy we have seen one living specimen in an aquarium, taken in the Assunpink Creek at its mouth. This is the only living specimen taken in New Jersey that we have ever seen, but learn that it is common in some of the rocky creeks in the northern part of the State.

The Eel (Anguilla tenuirostris), as elsewhere we suppose, is abundant in all our water courses. A careful examination of specimens from various localities, and comparison of reports of local fishermen, tend to the fact (?) that the largest eels are to be found in the rivers and streams directly tributary to them; and that in isolated mill-ponds far distant from the main water courses, they are not so large or numerous. We do not admit that such is really the case, but it does appear to be true. The experience of other observers would be interesting to know; and how large do our various species of Anguilla grow, as found in fresh-water? In the Delaware and its many small tributaries we find the Lamprey (Petromyzon nigricans) very abundant. Although occasionally found sticking to the sides of large fish, shad, rock-fish, white-perch and chub, they do not appear to feed upon fish thus exclusively. We have frequently found a large quantity of them adhering to the carcasses of dogs and other drowned animals, and judge that they subsist upon dead, rather than living animal matter. In an aquarium they adhere to the glass sides and remove the green scum very effectually, but whether they devour it or not we could not ascertain. We have known the Lampreys to suck their way up the facing of mill dams and so wander far up from the river. In such cases they bury themselves in the mud, in the winter, as do eels instead of following the river out into the sea.

VARIATIONS IN NATURE.

BY THOMAS MEEHAN.

THE idea that art has made most of the variations we find in gardens is far removed from the truth. It has done much to prevent a true knowledge of the origin of species. Art has done little towards making variations; it has only helped to preserve the natural evolutions of form from being crowded out. There is scarcely any species of wild plants but will furnish numberless variations, if we only look for them. To-day I examined a large patch of ox-eye daisies (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum). The first impression is that they are remarkably uniform, yet there were some with petals as long only as the width of the disk; others with petals double the length. In some the petals taper to a narrow point; in others they are tridentate on the apex. Again, some flowers have petals uniformly linear. Others have them tapering at both ends. Some have recurved and others flat petals. In one plant the scales of the involucre were very much reflexed, a very striking difference from the usually closely appressed condition.

I have frequently found that these very common things which nobody looks at, furnish as many new facts to an enquiring mind, as the rare species which every one loves to

see.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FAUNA OF THE SOUTHERN ALLEGHANIES.

BY PROFESSOR E. D. COPE.

I. On the so-called Alleghanian Fauna in General. The terms Canadian and Alleghanian, have been applied by Pro

fessors Verrill* and Agassiz† to faunal associations of species of animals, characteristic of Canada and adjacent territory, and the Middle and Eastern United States, etc. The former author, in the later essay quoted, attempts to define these faunæ in a more or less precise manner, regarding the southern boundary of the first as "coincident with a line which shall indicate a mean temperature of 50° Fahrenheit, and the southern boundary of the second, to be the line of 55°." In accordance with this view the southern boundary of the Canadian fauna, commencing at the mouth of the Penobscot River in Maine, extends parallel with the coast into New Brunswick, and returning through middle Maine passes south of Moosehead Lake and the White Mountains, along the eastern base of the Green Mountains to the south, and up their western foot to the river St. Lawrence. From near Montreal it turns to the south-west, and, passing through Lake Ontario, crosses Michigan from St. Clair to Milwaukee, and rises following the valley of the Mississippi northwards. The Adirondack Mountains were regarded as a portion of this fauna, surrounded, like an island, by the Alleghanian.

The southern boundary of the Alleghanian was traced from near Norfolk, Virginia, up the valley of the James River to the Alleghany Mountains, southward along their base to their termination in Georgia, and then north again along their western slope to Kentucky and the Ohio River. The Southern, or Louisianian, fauna included the lower portion of the Ohio basin, and an undetermined extent of that of the Mississippi north of the latter. The boundary line then descended to the south to the west of that river. I may suggest here that the most northern habitat of the Siren lacertina might prove to be near the northern extreme of the boundary in question. This point, so far as I am aware, is

* Proceedings Essex Institute, III. 136. Proceedings Boston Society of Natural History, 1866, 260.

†Nott and Gliddon, "Types of Mankind," 1853.

AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. I.

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