326 The Trout s of America 



several days before fishing being most fruitful in 

 scores. 



The habits of the oquassa or blueback trout 

 [Salvelinus oquassa) are somewhat similar to 

 those of the Dublin Pond trout and the lake 

 herring ; they can only be seen in the lakes and 

 streams between October 10 and 20, after 

 which they disappear until the same period of 

 the following year. The cisco or lake herring 

 comes to the surface when the May flies are 

 swarming, usually for about thirty days, from 

 May 20 to June 10, and the Dublin Pond 

 trout during the same period. Would it not be 

 well for our fish savants, when in doubt as to the 

 strict classification of the trouts, with their slight 

 and often perplexing similarities of structure, 

 to ofive some consideration to their habits when 

 these are constant ? If this was permitted as a 

 factor in classification, a pertinent query would 

 be — Is the cisco or lake herring a trout, or is 

 the Dublin Pond fish a cisco ? Both are mem- 

 bers of the salmon family. 



The blueback seldom, if ever, grows beyond 

 twelve inches in length ; it has a more slender 

 and graceful body than the brook trout, and its 

 forked tail is a distinguishing mark of the species. 



