THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 



351 



It is a large species, reacliing a length of 20 inches and the weight of 6 or 8 

 pounds ; even larger individuals have been reported. Spawning takes place in 

 Sunapee Lake on reefs in shallow water, and not in the streams tributary to the 

 lake; the season is about the same as for the Brook Trout. The colors of the male 

 in the breeding season are gorgeous, and the sight of a host of spawning fish in the 

 water is one to be remembered. 



Many large and small trout of this kind have been deposited in Lake George 

 and other suitable waters of the State. 



71. Smelt ; Ice Fish {Osinerus uiordax Mitchill). 



Atherina mordax Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. See. N. Y., I, 446, 1815, New York. 

 Osmerus viridescens DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 243, pi. 39, fig. 124, streams flowing 



into Long Island Sound, Hackensack and Passaic Rivers. 

 Osmerus mordax Bean, Fishes Penna., 64, pi. 26, fig. 46, 1893; Jordan & Evermann, 



Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., I, 523, 1896, pi. LXXXVI, fig. 228, 1900; Evermann & 



Kendall, Rept. U. S. Commr. Fish & Fisheries for 1894, 593, 1896, Lake Mem- 



phremagog and Lake Champlain. 



smelt. 



The Smelt is known along our east coast from Labrador to Virginia. It prob- 

 ably extends still farther north, but the record of W. A. Stearns, published in the 

 Proceedings of the National Museum for 1883, p. 124, fixes the most northern 

 locality known at present. He found the Smelt common in August in shoal water 

 off the wharves of Cape Breton. In Pennsylvania the fish is common in the spring 

 in the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. In numerous lakes of Maine, New Hamp- 

 shire, and other New England States, the Smelt is common landlocked, and thrives 

 as well as in the salt water. 



DeKay knew the Smelt as a marine species ascending the Hackensack and 

 Passaic Rivers. The species occurs also in Lakes Champlain and Memphremagog. 

 In the former lake it reaches a large size. At Port Henry, N. Y., the fish is called 

 Ice Fish. 



