THE SUCKERS 



THE sucker family of fishes is classified 

 under the family name of Catostomida, 

 and consists of about fourteen genera 

 and sixty species, all of which inhabit 

 the rivers of North America. It appears that of 

 these, only eight species and one sub-species live 

 in the waters of New England and Eastern Canada. 

 They are not valued as food, the flesh being taste- 

 less and full of small bones, although the residents 

 along the banks of the sucker waters declare that, 

 in October and November, they are a choice fish, 

 barring their many bones. As the suckers spawn 

 in the spring, their flesh is firmer in the fall, and 

 naturally sweeter. 



There will be found, in Lake Champlain and in 

 the Great Lakes, a carp or drum called the lake 

 carp (Carpiodes thompsoni, the generic name from 

 the Latin, " carp-like," and the specific after the 

 Reverend Mr. Thompson, who found the species 

 in Lake Champlain). It may be known by its 

 stout, short body, the back of which is greatly 

 arched, by the unusual height of the first dorsal 

 fin, and by its small head. 

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