INTRODUCTORY RKMARKS 



that by such men as Bockford and ^siiinod — naiiios as familiar as 

 household words to all who cau sit a horse, or halloo to a hound — it 

 would have been an act, if not of impertinence, at least of total 

 supererogation, to fill up the pages of a work devoted to a new class 

 of subjects, with trite remarks on an old one, or with quotations from 

 books within the reach of every sportsman. 



All this which I have here set down in relation to my work on Field 

 Sports, and to some strictui-es which have been made upon it, is simply 

 explanatory of my intentions with regard to this work. 



These are to furnish what information I can in relation to the classes, 

 migrations, habits, breeding seasons, and the modes of taking, of those 

 which I call and consider sporting or game fishes ; to insist on the 

 generic distinctions, and the true names and definitions of the various 

 species and families ; to show briefly how the various families and 

 classes may be distinguished one from the ot^er, thereby enabling 

 sportsmen to avoid the constant errors and blunders into which they 

 are now falling in the confusion of distinct varieties and orders ; and 

 putting it in their power, by the accurate observance, and correct 

 recording, of a few simple signs, to render invaluable service to the 

 cause of science, in one of the most important, and the least under- 

 stood of its branches 



And, before 1 proceed farther, I shall beg gentlemen from remote 

 sections of the North, East, West and South, not to wax wrathful and 

 patriotically indignant, nor to reclaim fiercely against the author of this 

 work, because they fail to find therein described some singular local 

 mode of captui-ing some singular specimen of the piscine race known 

 in their own districts, and there regarded as a sporting-fish, but 

 unknown as such to the world at large. 



Some gentlemen doubtless regard bobbing for eels, and bait-fishing 

 through holes cut in the ice — others, hauling up sharks with ox-chains 



