122 



The American Angler 



than the head and three and a third to 

 five times greater than the depth of the 

 fish ; there are eight rays in the dorsal 

 and nine in the anal fin, and the dorsal 

 is inserted slightly back of the ventral 

 fins. The rosy color of the lower fins 

 appears only on the male fish in the 

 spring of the year, at which time the 

 lower jaw and the region from the dor- 

 sal fin to tip of snout is covered with 

 small tubercles. The range of this fish 

 covers the waters east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, excepting the South Atlan- 

 tic States and Texas. 



Another and smaller red-fin — Notro- 

 pis It III bra tilts — of many varietal forms, 

 is frequently met with by anglers on 

 the trout streams, both east and west of 

 the Alleghany Mountains, although it 

 appears to be more numerous in the 

 west. If I mistake not, I have caught 

 them frequently and saw great numbers 

 of them in the brooks of Lewis County, 

 New A^ork, and in the counties of Mon- 

 roe, Pike and Lycoming, of Pennsyl- 

 vania. This little fellow may be known 

 and distinguished from its larger 

 brother by its dorsal and anal fins, there 

 being seven rays in the former and 

 eleven in the latter. Its body is much 

 more elongated, with a long head and 

 peduncle. The dorsal fin is high and 

 inserted midway between the ventral 

 and anal fins. The coloration is dark 

 blue above, pale below, with a more or 

 less defined black spot at base of the 

 dorsal fin in front. In the spring of the 

 year the head alone of the male be- 

 comes covered with small whitish tuber- 

 cles, and the belly and lower fins are of 

 bright brick -red color. These two con- 

 ditions will at once distinguish the little 

 red-fin from the larger one, on which 

 tubercles appear in the spring over the 

 entire region front of the dorsal, and 

 the lower fins are of a rosy tint, not 

 brick-red. 



There is another little fish — Notropis 

 riibricrocciis — which may be termed the 

 typical red-fin of American waters, in- 

 asmuch as the fins are red all the year, 

 the two other species named having 

 this distinctive marking only in the 

 spring or spawning season. It is found 

 in the head waters of the Tennessee 

 and Savannah rivers and is a surpass- 

 ingly beautiful fish. The males are 

 dark steel blue above, with a dark lat- 

 eral band made up of coal black tiny 

 spots, which passes through the eye 

 around the snout ; the dorsal fin is crim- 

 son, the tail pink and the lower fins 

 scarlet. The head is a pale red and the 

 lower jaw flushed with blood color ; the 

 eyes are either bluish or flushed with 

 red, and there is a lustrous streak along 

 the sides, below which it is silvery. In 

 keeping with its extreme beauty, this 

 fish loves to disport in the cold rock 

 pools at the foot of falls or in the eddies 

 of rushing rapids. It is locally known 

 as the red fallfish. 



Perhaps I should claim indulgence 

 for this somewhat lengthy description 

 of these little fishes so frequently met 

 with by anglers, many of whom, how- 

 ever, have doubtless felt, as I do, that 

 to catch a fish and not know its name 

 or species, robs an outing of much of 

 its pleasures as it certainly does of its 

 value. To pass a day on the stream 

 without a knowledge of or interest in the 

 life histories of the fish caught, puts the 

 fisher on the same plane as the pot-hunter 

 — a man who eagerly fishes for meat 

 when his stomach is gorged to depletion. 



Within the last few years the lesser 

 cyprinoids have undergone extensive 

 and radical revision in classification and 

 technical description, embracing sev- 

 eral hundreds of species which are of 

 no special interest to anglers other than 

 as bait fishes. As such they will be de- 

 scribed on another page. 



