24 THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMEEICA. 



not of form, bony configuration, scales, or fins) whereon to 

 found generic distinctions. 



The same remarks apply to a small fish, which Dr. Dekay 

 has described at length, and figm-ed under a new name, as the 

 Troutlet, in his Fauna of New York ; and which is unquestion- 

 ably nothing more than the young fiy of the common Brook 

 Trout, while it is so small as to retain the lateral transverse 

 bars, or clouded bands, which have lately been discovered to 

 belong to the fry of every known variety of the family of the 

 Salmon, and which have caused all the confusion, and given 

 rise to all the various theories, concerning the Parr of Great 

 Britain. 



Into all these points I shall enter more fully under their 

 appropriate heads, when treating of the separate fish to which 

 they relate. 



The Smelt {Osmerus Viridescens), I have mentioned, though 

 not properly a Game Fish — for it is probable that the state- 

 ments of its being taken with the hook refer to the Athering or 

 Sand Smelt — because there are some errors to be refuted, con- 

 nected with him and the young of the true Salmon, which would, 

 not so easily be dealt with otherwise; and the Shad [Alosa 

 Prcestabilis) I have elevated to the rank of a Game Fish, not 

 merely on account of the excellence of his flesh in a culinary 

 point of view, but because I am well satisfied by indisputable 

 proofs, that, although it is not iisual to attempt the capture of 

 this fish sportsmanlike, the fault rests not ynih. the Shad, but 

 with the angler. 



He will not only take the fly, and on some occasions very 

 freely, but runs strongly away with the line, and fights hai'd 



