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ALTHOUGH the minnows are small, 

 they are not to be despised on that 

 account. They make a most excel- 

 - lent fry, when a sufficient number can 

 be obtained, and, in the excellence of their meat, 

 compare well with fish of larger size. 



As a rule, minnows are clean feeders. They 

 live on aquatic vegetables, and on small insects 

 and worms. There are many minnows, and their 

 flashing colors seem to attract the attention of the 

 larger fish. Their existence, from the very first, 

 is a strenuous struggle. All fish are ready to 

 devour them, and were it not for the fact that 

 minnows are prolific, they would have utterly 

 disappeared. 



Their spawning season is in the spring, up to the 

 middle of summer, and is a short one. The hatch- 

 ing of the eggs is rapid. In the spawning season, 

 the heads of the minnows are covered with small 

 whitish knobs, osseous in character. These appear 

 just before, and then disappear soon after, the fish 

 have spawned. They are supposed to act as a 

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