202 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



The smaller species, 0. sergeantti, found in the Passaic 

 and Raritan, and discovered lately in the Schuylkill and 

 tributaries of the Delaware, is preferred by many, to those 

 brought from the north. The peculiar odor of a freshly 

 taken smelt, resembling that of a newly pulled cucumber, 

 is observed readily in the more southern species, and epi- 

 cures accord to it a great superiority over the northern fish. 

 They are found with us only in winter and early spring, 

 when they spawn and then disappear. They never ascend 

 above the head of tide, neither do the northern species, 

 from all I have learned of them in New Brunswick and 

 Canada. From the success that has attended efforts to 

 introduce the northern species into fresh water, it is evi- 

 dent that these are not without claims to naturalization. 



In this notice of these beautiful and delicate little fish I 

 may appropriately allude to their food. An examination 

 of their dentition, and I may say of their stomachs also, 

 evinces an extremely predatory nature. During the last 

 winter I took from the pouch of one of the northern spe- 

 cies, three undigested shrimp, two of the small fry of some 

 marine species, and a half a dozen ova, as large as the eggs 

 of our brook trout. Some years ago I made a similar 

 examination of a number of smelt and found that all of 

 them had been feeding bountifully on shrimp. I was not 

 aware until then that these lively little crustaceans could 

 be found in winter. The fact of their being found along 

 our north-eastern coast at this season of the year is sug- 

 gestive of the vast amount of marine food accessible to 

 pelagian and anadromous fishes at all times. Small 



