THE IMPORTANCE OF MINNOWS AND THEIR 

 ALLIES FOR GAME-FISH FOOD 



Making a wide, though general, survey of what 

 game-fish consume as food, it is certain the varied 

 members of the trout, bass, and pike famiHes 

 subsist almost entirely on a fish diet, principally 

 on the large family of minnows, the young of their 

 own kind, and other species of fish. Were it pos- 

 sible that every species of these three game-fish 

 families could be restrained from cannibalism, 

 they would soon multiply so rapidly as to glut 

 the waters in which they abide and utterly de- 

 stroy all fish life that nature provides as food for 

 them. Cannibalism induces that trait we call 

 "gamy" by necessitating a lifelong battle of exist- 



14 



