114 AX ANGLER'S REMINISCENCES. 



All of these fish will, at times, take the artificial fly, the trolling spoon, the live 

 minnow or the still bait. 



Besides these, there are the Siluridae, or catfish ; the Clupidae, which include the 

 herring and shad ; the Hyodontidae, or moon-eyes a large-eyed fish allied to the 

 herrings, and the Scienidae, or sheepshead, which afford good sport to the angler 

 and are fairly edible food. The habitat of these is chiefly in Western waters. Sev- 

 eral of them will take the fly, others a ground bait. The moon-eyes, or "golden 

 eyes," as they are sometimes locally called, run in schools, and often give pretty 

 fly-fishing in many of the tributaries of the Red River of the North, flowing through 

 Northern Minnesota. 



The great majority of people cannot distinguish one family of fish from an- 

 other. Indeed, they cannot even distinguish the common varieties of the common 

 domestic animals the horse, cow, dog or pig ; yet these varieties are very numerous. 

 On the show bench at the great dog show in New York last April, for instance, 

 there were sixty varieties of dogs. 



We do not determine species by their colors, although colors are an indication 

 but by their specific characteristics or anatomical structure. 



Now, an expert ichthyologist ought to be able to determine the leading families 

 of fishes equally as well in the dark as in the light, by simply passing his hands 

 over their bodies. Here are a number of specimens before us. Note the arrange- 

 ment, position and number of the fins, some prickly, some soft-rayed, some adipose ; 

 the scales of different shapes and sizes, large, small and indefinable ; the opercles 

 or gill-covers round, ovate, elongated ; tails forked, crescent-shaped, square ; snouts 

 elongated, snubbed or retrousse ; mouths of varying sizes and shapes, some bristling 

 with teeth, others smooth as an infant's gums. A blind man should be able to 

 read all these signs with more accuracy than the embossed literature of asylums. 



Everything in nature has its counterpart. There are analogies throughout all 

 the kingdoms of creation. If we reason from analogy we are not liable to go far 

 astray. Observation made by actual comparison must be correct, as a general rule. 



That we discover that fishes have all the five senses; that they can see, hear, 

 taste, smell and feel; that they think, reason and sleep; that many of them produce 

 vocal sounds, some of which are strictly musical. The stories of the singing fish 

 of Ovid, Pliny, and other ancient writers, are not mere fables. I suppose I have 

 myself heard vocal sounds from at least a dozen varieties of fish, notably, the 

 sheepshead, or river drums of Western lakes, and the malasheganies of the great 

 lakes, and on the sea coast the gurnards and drums. The drums are often heard 

 on the ocean bottom, while the sea robins, weak fish and grunts always croak when 

 lifted by the angler into the bottom of the boat. It is even maintained by some 

 accepted authorities that fishes can communicate with each other by sounds. If 

 they can they have never told me, and had they done so I should be too gallant 

 to give away their secret. But although I have not heard them converse in ichthyo 

 language, I have noted the wink of the eye, the twirl of fin. the sign manual, and 

 the tactical movement, which would do credit to stage pantomime or a plain Indian. 



In the Western river drums, or sheepshead, the sources of the sounds are two 

 small ear bones (located in the head, of course). They are of the size and shape 

 of tamarind stones, and when dry resemble milk quartz. They are popularly known 

 as "lucky stones," and many persons carry them in the pocket to woo the fickle 

 Goddess of Fortune. 



Fishes of the same river and brook have different complexions and varieties 

 of visage. Those who are familiar with them, as fish culturists, or those who 



