DISTINCTION BY FIN-RAYS. 41 



would have prevented tlie application of the misnomer Trout to 

 the Weak Fish. I have observed this very day, in the columns 

 of a distinguished weekly journal, an offer on the part of a 

 correspondent to describe the habits, &c., of the Susquehana 

 Salmon! There being notoriously no Salmon in that or any 

 Southern stream, although the Brook Trout abound in its upper 

 waters, I venture at once to predict that this Salmon will turn out 

 to be the fish described by Dekay as Lucioperca Americana, and 

 variously called Ohio Salmon and Ohio Pickerel ; being neither, 

 but a species of the Perch family, with one spiny dorsal fin. 



I hope these brief facts will induce sportsmen to give a little 

 attention to this subject ; and that they will not be alarmed by 

 the harshness or apparent difficulty of a few foreign terms nor 

 suffer themselves to be deterred by a mere show of trouble from 

 acquiring, in a few minutes, that which will surely give them 

 years of gratification . 



More direct instruction in regard to the mode of observation, 

 and the point to be observed, will be given under the head of 

 each particular fish, in the body of the work ; but I will here 

 point out that it is very well to note down the number of rays 

 severally contained in the pectoral, ventral, anal, caudal, and 

 dorsal fins of any fish which is suspected of being an undescribed 

 or distinct variety ; as on this, as well as on the shape of these 

 appendages, much depends in distinguishing individual species 

 of the same family. 



I will here, in corroboration of the last remark, state in two 

 words, that, next to the arrangement of the gill-covers, of which 

 more anon, the fact on which Yarrel relies most strongly for 

 distinguishing the Bull Trout {Salmo Eriox) from the true 



