456 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



use is made of it. Its flesh is pale, and its bones too firm for it to be used 

 in canning, while old individuals taken in the canning season are usually 

 spent and worthless. In the Sacramento it is not very common. 





THE RAINBOW TROUT. 



Salmo irideus, is called the " Rainbow Trout," " Brook Trout," "Moun- 

 tain Trout," " Speckled Trout," " Golden Trout," and by various other 

 names. It does not reach a weight of more than five or six pounds, so far 

 as we know, and most of them, as taken, are fingerlings ranging from four 

 inches to a foot in length. It is found in streams west of the Sierra 

 Nevada, from near the Mexican line to Oregon, and is said to occur 

 in the northern part of Lower California. The southernmost seen by 

 Jordan were from San Luis Ray River. Few have been observed in 

 salt water. It may probably run into the sea from streams in which the 

 lower waters are clear. It feeds on worms, larvae, and the like. It is 

 a fish of little gameness or activity, which has not often been brought 

 into the markets of San Francisco, and at present has little economic im- 

 portance, although of course a good table-fish. It has been rather exten- 

 sively introduced into the waters of the Eastern United States, and has 

 been reared artificially in large numbers by the U. S. Fish Commission on 

 the McCloud river in California, and thence distributed eastward and 

 across the Pacific. The growth of the species at Northville, Mich., Ver- 

 ona, Mo., Wytheville, Va., Cold Spring, N. Y., and in Japan, is very 

 gratifying. Specimens have been obtained from North Carolina. The 

 South Side club at Oakdale, Long Island, recently sent to the National 

 Museum a fine example taken in salt water. 



The Rio Grande Trout, Salmo spilurus, (Cope) is abundant iii tlie 

 headwaters of the Rio Grande, Rio Colorado, and their tributaries, being 



