CHAPTER VIII 



Fishes ^ 



FISH interest nearly every one. Some enjoy 

 watching them play in a sparkling brook, 

 others devote a large part of their vacations 

 to the catching of game fish, while those of a prac- 

 tical and mercenary turn are more interested in the 

 food value of the fish which are caught in such 

 enormous quantities. 



In their anatomy, growth, reproduction, and 

 habits, fish are so different from the other common 

 animals with which every one is familiar that they 

 make a fascinating subject for study. How many 

 persons can explain just how a flying fish flies, or 

 how to tell the age of a fish.? Some may know why 

 the salmon leaves its happy home in the ocean to 

 make a hazardous journey a thousand miles up a 

 river, but few can tell why the eel goes to sea or 

 where he goes when he is in the sea. Such points are 

 not only important from the biological point of view 

 but are also of great interest to the sportsman and 

 the commercial fisherman. 



The food and life history of our commercial fish 

 are of more public importance than most persons 



*This chapter was prepared mainly by Dr. Samuel F. Hilde- 

 brand, director of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries Biological Station 

 at Beaufort, North Carolina. 



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