52 SALMONID.E. 



owner was a bird of prey, an insect-eating warbler, or a grain- 

 cracker. 



The distinction, therefore, which is founded upon the differ- 

 ence of the teeth in different fishes is by no means fanciful, or 

 resorted to merely to enable naturalists to display their inge- 

 nuity in making definitions, and multiplying species, as many 

 people stolidly imagine ; but is real and permanent, as repre- 

 senting the great subdivisions of the dwellers of the waters, as 

 those which feed on living, those which feed on dead animals 

 of their own species, as insect-eaters, or masticators of hard 

 shell-fish, and so forth, unto the end. Differences, which even 

 the most bigoted enemy of scientific distinctions must admit to 

 be as real, and true in nature, as those between the tiger and 

 the wolf, the ox that chews his cud, and the horse which 

 fattens at the manger. 



I have known a sage coroner in England, who was wont to 

 indulge in sapient ridicule of the learned professions, and to 

 sneer at anatomical and physiological distinctions, who gravely 

 sat in inquest over some exhumed bones, and solemnly recorded 

 a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons 

 unknown ; the skeleton, when examined, turning out to be that 

 of a defunct cow. 



Such instances are becoming, I am happy to say, rare, as 

 regards men in general, and those sciences which regard the 

 human race and domestic animals. Why it should not be so 

 with the sportsman, I know not ; but too true it is, that most 

 of that fraternity obstinately adhere to ancient error, even 

 when it is clearly pointed out; and attempt to ridicule the 

 man of letters as a mere theorist, and unpractical, for attempt- 



