CONCORD, June 1, 1847.
_Dear Sir_,--I send you 15 pouts, 17 perch, 13 shiners, 1 larger land
tortoise, and 5 muddy tortoises, all from the pond by my house. Also 7
perch, 5 shiners, 8 breams, 4 dace(?), 2 muddy tortoises, 5 painted
do., and 3 land do., all from the river. One black snake, alive, and
one dormouse(?) caught last night in my cellar. The tortoises were all
put in alive; the fishes were alive yesterday, _i. e._, Monday, and
some this morning. Observe the difference between those from the pond,
which is pure water, and those from the river.
I will send the light-colored trout and the pickerel with the longer
snout, which is our large one, when I meet with them. I have set a
price upon the heads of snapping turtles, though it is late in the
season to get them.
If I wrote red-finned eel, it was a slip of the pen; I meant
red-finned minnow. This is their name here; though smaller specimens
have but a slight reddish tinge at the base of the pectorals.
Will you, at your leisure, answer these queries?
Do you mean to say that the twelve banded minnows which I sent are
undescribed, or only one? What are the scientific names of those
minnows which have any? Are the four dace I send to-day identical with
one of the former, and what are they called? Is there such a fish as
the black sucker described,--distinct from the common?