AMERICAN SPORTSMEN. 47 



of the literary and scientific institutions of those lands are 

 sportsmen, who have contributed most highly to the advance- 

 ment of knowledge by their investigations, experiments, and 

 contributions, we can, on this side, alas ! point to but two or 

 three of the sporting fraternity who have cared to record them- 

 selves as anything more than killers of animals ; of the habits, 

 characteristics, and even names of which they are but too often 

 grossly ignorant. 



A few there are, it is true, who aspire to higher things, and 

 who are actuated by something more than the mere love of 

 killing, the mere ambition of boasting of bag ; and among these 

 (may their numbers increase daily !) it will not, I hope, be 

 deemed impertinent to specify the author of " The Birds of 

 Long Island," who, from a sportsman of no secondary skill or 

 energy, has successfully aspired to the honours of a naturalist ; 

 and has most deservedly acquired, as such, no small degree of 

 celebrity and favour. 



From this short excursion, into which I have been naturally 

 led in the course of my subject, I return to the description of 

 the gill-covers of fish, and thereafter to the dental system, the 

 method of comparing which I shall lay down briefly for the use 

 of the learner, and then proceed at once to the history of 

 Sporting Fishes. 



The subject, which I now present, is the head of the Silver 

 Trout of Europe {Salmo Lacustris), a species found in the large 

 lakes of that continent. The figure is copied, by permission, 

 from Professor Agassiz' great work on the " Fresh-water Fishes 

 of Central Europe." 



The gill-covers of all the fishes of the three first divisions. 



