xiv AMERICAN FISHES. 



The Reports and Bulletins of the United States Fish Commission must 

 not be overlooked, and the reports of the State Commissions, the reports 

 of the Canadian Department of Fishery, the bulletin of the French Society 

 of Acclimation, the circulars of the German Fischerei-Verein, and the 

 publications of the London and Berlin Fisheries Exhibitions are worthy of 

 study. 



I do not think that the term " game fish " has ever been properly defined. 

 It is generally supposed to apply to fishes which are active, wily and cour- 

 ageous, and whose capture requires skill or cunning — those, in short, 

 which afford sport to the sportsman. As a matter of fact, although most 

 food fishes are not game fishes, no fish which is not of the highest rank as 

 a table delicacy is rated by Americans as a game fish. The barbel, the 

 dace and the roach, the pets of the father of angling, classical in the pages 

 of sportsman's literature, are despised Dy new world authorities, and are 

 now considered "coarse fish " even by English writers. Yet they afford 

 excellent sport — sport which in England tens of thousands enjoy to every 

 one who gets the chance to whip a salmon or trout line over preserved 

 waters. 



"Game" in law and every day usage is a term employed to describe 

 wild animals — -ferce naturce, in which no man holds personal title of 

 possession. Game birds are those which can only be obtained occasion- 

 ally and with difficulty, and which, having been obtained, are worthy the 

 notice of the epicure. Game fishes are rated in much the same manner, 

 it appears to me. If not, why were the Pompano, the King-fish and the 

 California Salmon and the Spanish Mackerel included among the twenty 

 selected to be painted by Kilbourn for Scribner's atlas of the game fishes 

 of the United States. Surely not because they afford si^ort to the sports- 

 man. Some years ago I defined the term as follows : 



Game fishes are those which by reason of the courage, strength, beauty 

 and the sapidity of their flesh are sought for by those who angle for sport 

 with delicate fishing tackle. 



Now I should simply say that — 



A game fish is a choice fish, a fish not readily obtained by wholesale 

 methods at all seasons of the year, nor constantly to be had in the mar- 

 kets — a fish, furthermore, which has some degree of intelligence and cun- 

 ning, and which matches its own wits against those of the angler, requir- 

 ing skill, forethought and ingenuity to compass its capture. 



