4 7 4 A MEXICAN FISHES. 



pounds after three days' captivity, and was thought by experts to have 

 lost a pound and a half in transit from Maine to New Jersey, where it 

 died. Its length was thirty inches, and its circumference eighteen. 

 Another, from Mooselucmaguntic, weighed eight and one-half pounds, 

 and measured twenty-five inches. The Nepigon River claims still heavier 

 fish. Hallock mentions one said to have weighed seventeen pounds. 



There are many local races of Trout ; the same stream often contains 

 dissimilar forms, and those bred in different hatcheries may easily be dis- 

 tinguished. Whoever has seen the display at the April opening of the 

 trout season at Mr. Blackford's, in Fulton Market, N. Y. , can under- 

 stand the possibility of almost infinite variety in form and tint within the 

 limits of one species. Fish inhabiting swift streams have lithe, trim 

 bodies and long, powerful fins ; those in quiet lakes are stout, short- 

 finned, and often overgrown. In cool, limpid brooks, with sunlight, 

 much oxygen, and stimulating food, their skins are transparent and their 

 hues vivid ; in dark, sluggish pools they are somber and slimy, and are 

 called "Black Trout." Agassiz noticed that those of the same river 

 varied accordingly as they haunted its sunny or shady side. They have 

 the power of changing their tint at will. The influence of the nerves 

 over color was neatly demonstrated by M. Pouchet, who produced a 

 white side in a Trout by destroying the eye of that side. In the sea, for 

 reasons unexplained, both Trout and Salmon lose their gay colors and 

 become uniform silvery gray, with black spots. In the sea, too, the flesh 

 aNsumes a reddish color, due no doubt to the absorption of the pigments 

 of crabs and shrimps eaten by the fish. Red flesh is also found in some 

 inland races. 



Our Trout are strong feeders, but are dainty rather than greedy. They 

 consume moderate quantities of food, and it suits their capricious ap- 

 petites to seize their prey while living. They take objects at the surface 

 with an upward leap, instead of downward from above like the Salmon. 

 ( >f all foods they prefer the worms washed out of the bank, then gayly 

 colored flies, water insects, little fishes, larvae and the eggs of fishes. 

 Those in domestication are usually fed on the heart, liver and lungs of 

 animals killed for the market. 



Their daintiness, shyness, cunning and mettle render them favorites of 

 the angler, who lures them into his creel by many sly devices. The most 

 skillful fisherman is he who places before them least obtrusively the bait 



