334 GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



where they would remain sufficiently long to digest the contents, 

 but those caught by gilling have generally food partially digested. 

 It is asserted that whitefish are migratory ; how true this is I do 

 not know, except it be for spawning purposes ; they do, however, 

 seek the deeper and cooler waters as summer advances. The 

 presence of large fishes in numbers at certain localities, of a size 

 never taken anywhere else, would suggest a local habit, with no 

 disposition for long voyages." 



Whitefish do not take the hook readily, and the opinion has 

 obtained that they could not be caught in this fashion. Never- 

 theless they have afforded good sport to the angler with a fly-rod 

 baited with the May-fly, {Ephemera) ; and worms have also been 

 used with success. The whitefish of the Rocky Mountains take 

 flies as readily as trout, and so do some of the eastern whitefish 

 at certain seasons of the year. 



XjRAYLiNG. — Thymallus tricolor. Cope. 



Specific characteristics. — Depth of body is contained four times 

 and two-thirds in total length without caudal. Head enters about 

 five times ; length of snout equals diameter of eye ; lower jaw pro- 

 jects slightly. Origin of dorsal fin corresponds to the middle of 

 the distance between operculum and ventrals. Color, Purplish- 

 grey ; silvery white on belly ; small bluish black irregular spots on 

 sides. Dorsal fin which is greatly developed has along its insertion 

 a black line, next one of rosy pink, then a dark one, and one of 

 rose hue just above, beginning at sixth ray ; a row of spots of dull 

 green ; a row of very small fifty-six ray spots ; finally a broad 

 dusky area. Prof. Milner says : " There is no species sought for 

 by anglers that surpasses the grayling in beauty. They are more 

 elegantly formed than the trout, and their great dorsal fin is a su- 

 perb mark of beauty. When the well-lids were lifted, and the sun- 

 rays admitted, lighting up the delicate olive-brown tints of the back 

 and sides, the bluish white of the abdomen, and the mingling of 

 tints of rose, pale blue, and purplish pink on the fins, it displayed 

 a combination of living colors that is equalled by no fish outside 

 of the tropics." 



And Mr. Fred. Mather adds : " The grayling has all the fins of 

 a trout ; his pectorals are olive-brown, with a bluish cast at the 



