NATURALIZATION OF FISHES. 197 



took readily a bait of the flesh of one of its fellows, a 

 worm having been used to capture the first fish, and that 

 it was very beautiful and of delicious flavor. Cannot some 

 of the spirited commissioners of fisheries of the New Eng- 

 land States introduce this new fish into their waters ? 



WHITE-FISH. Lake herrings, Otsego bass, and species 

 known by other local names are included in the genus 

 Coregonus. It is likely that we have no less than ten dis- 

 tinct species, from the fat-beladened C. albus or sapidissimus 

 and G. quadrilateralis of the Arctic regions, to the little 

 lake herring found in the Saranac lakes. They are all 

 peaceable dwellers in the depths ; approaching the shores, 

 or the rapids of some affluent in autumn to spawn, at 

 which time most of those found in our markets are taken. 



It is said that no food has ever been detected in the 

 stomachs of these fish. In this respect they show a 

 marked analogy to the shad and herring. It is said of 

 them also, that on rare occasions they have been known to 

 take a bait and even to rise to a fly ; their food, though, is a 

 matter of mystery. They are not predatory, as will be 

 seen from the mouth and jaws. Although their food may 

 consist of minute Crustacea, they are, perhaps, to a certain 

 extent, herbiverous, as cyprinoids are,* and may find cer- 

 tain fresh-water algae in the deeps where they feed. 



* Fishes that are considered purely predatory in their habits, 

 are, in some degree, omnivorous. A striped bass will take a bait 

 of shad roe ; I found once in the throat of one, several roots and 

 stalks of some succulent aquatic grass. A trout or a salmon will 

 also take a bait of the roe of one of its own species. 



17* 



