SMELT. SHAD. 25 



before lie is subdued. I regard him a very decided addition to 

 the list of American Sporting Fishes. 



The common Herring can be taken very readily in the same 

 manner, and I have had very considerable amusement in kiUing 

 them with a gaudy peacock-tail fly, in New York harbour, 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 relation 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 PoUan 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 Sahnonidce and Clupeidce, or Salmon and Shad, al- 

 though they are included for many satisfactory reasons among 

 the former — the common people in Great Britain calling them 

 fresh- water Herring, while in the United States they not unfre- 

 quently pass by the name of Shad-salmon. 



The flesh of all the varieties is delicate and highly flavoured. 

 The desire of comparing these American Coregoni with the 

 British varieties, and of bringing them somewhat more into 

 general notice, has induced me to mention them, rather than 

 their game nature. 



I now proceed to the salt-water fishes, both those taken in 

 deep, and those in shoal water, of the various families above 

 named; and thereafter shall arrange them according to their 

 haunts and habits. 



