FISHES OF NEW YORK 123 



belly and lower fins ros}-. The specimens described, no. 9202, 

 U. S. ]S'^ational Musenm, are from 5^ to 6{- inches long. 



The fallfish or dace is one of the largest of the minnow family 

 in New York, reaching a length of 18 inches, and it is one of the 

 most beautiful species as well as game in its qualities. As a 

 food fish, however, this is not greatly esteemed. It is extremely 

 common in the Delaware river and its tributaries and moder- 

 ately abundant in the Susquehanna. The fallfish is found from 

 Quebec to Virginia. Mitchill had it from the Wallkill river and 

 knew of its occurrence in the Hudson, near Albany. Rafinesque 

 recorded it from the Fishkill and other tributaries of the Hud 

 son. De Kay knew it from Lake Champlain and from New York 

 harbor. Evermann and Bean collected it in Scioto creek, at 

 Coopersville, and in Saranac river, at Plattsburg, in July 1891; 

 also in Racquette river, at Norfolk, and the St Lawrence river, 3 

 miles below Ogdensburg, in the same month. 



In the Lake Ontario basin the U. S. Fish Commission parties 

 found it at Sacket Harbor, Centerville, Watertown, Oswego, 

 Webster, Charlotte, Belleville, Henderson bay, Henderson Har- 

 bor, and Salt brook, near Nine Mile point. 



The fallfish delights in rapid, rocky portions of large streams 

 and in the deep channels. On being hooked, it fights desper- 

 ately for a short time, but its resistance is soon overcome. 

 Thoreau describes it as a soft fish with a taste like brown paper 

 salted, yet the boy fishermen will continue to covet and admire 

 this handsome and ubiquitous representative of the minnow 

 family. A colored plate of the fish, natural size, appears in the 

 3d Annual Report of tJic Commissioners of Fisher ks, Game and 

 Fwest of the State of New York, 1898, facing p. 146. There is 

 also a good account of the fish by A. N. Cheney on p. 244 and 

 245 of the same report. 



70 Semotilus atromaculatus (Mitchill) 



Horned Dace; Clmib \ 



Cuprifius atroniaailatiis MiTciiii.r, Amer. Month. Mag. II, 324, Mar. 1818. 



Wallkill river. 

 Leuciscus atromaculatus De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 210, pi. 32, fig. 102, 



1842. 



