28 THE GAME FISH Cf NORTH AMERICA. 



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 pro- 

 perly a Game Fish — for it is probable that the statements of its being 

 taken with the hook refer to the Atherine or Sand Smelt — because 

 there are some errors to be refuted, connected 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 usual to attempt the capture of this fish sports- 

 manlike, the fault rests not with 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 hard before he is subdued. 

 I regard him a very decided addition to the list of Amercian sporting- 

 fishes. 



The common Herring can be taken very readily in the same manner, 

 and I have had very considerable amusement in killing them with a 

 gaudy peacock-tail fly, in New York harbor, in the vicinity of Fort 

 Diamond, at the Narrows. 



With these exceptions, and the two varieties of White-fish, one of 

 which is absurdly misnamed Otsego Bass, having about as much rela- 

 tion to a Bass as it has to a Flounder, all that I have named are 

 admitted to be game by all fishermen; and these I have mentioned, 

 because I have little or no doubt that they also, like their European 

 congeners, the Gwyniad of Wales and the Pollan of Ireland, may be 

 occasionally taken with the artificial fly. 



All these fish are Coregoni, and are very nearly analogous to one 

 another, forming a sort of intermediate link between the families of 

 Salmonid/e and Clupeida. or Salmon and Shad, although they are 

 includod for many satisfactory reasons amon.T the former — the conimou 



