282 NEW YOKK STATE MUSEUM 



season is about tin* same as for the brook trout. The colors of 

 the malt' in I In- hicedinji' season are gorgeons, and the sight of 

 a host of spawning fish in the water is one to be remembered. 

 Many Uirge and small trout of this kind have been deposited 

 in Lake George and oilier suitable waters of the state. 



Family argeis:ti>s'ii:)ae 



Smelts 



Genus os.meris (Aitedi) Linnaeus 



liody elongate, compressed; head long, pointed; mouth wide, 

 ihe slender maxillary extending to past the middle of the eye, 

 lower jaw ])rojecting, preorbital and suborbital bones narrow; 

 maxilhuies and preuiaxillaries with fine teeth, lower jaw with 

 suuill teetli. wliicli art' larger posteriorly, tongue with a few 

 strong, fanglike teeth, largest at the ti]>. hyoid bone, vomer, pala- 

 tines and pterygoids with wide set teeth; gill rakers long and 

 slender; branchiostegals 8; scales large, loose, 60 to TO in the 

 course of the lateral line; dorsal small, about midwav of the 

 body, over the ventrals; anal rather long; vertebrae about 40; 

 pyloric caeca small, few. Small fishes of the coasts of Europe 

 and northern America, sometimes ascending rivers; delicate in 

 llesli and considerably \ alued as food. (After Jordan and Ever- 

 niannj 



143 Osmerus mordax (Mitchill) 



Smelt; loe Fish 



\lh(iiiHi morddx MrrciiiLL, Trans. Lit. & IMiil. Soc. X. Y. 1. 44(3, 1815. New 



York. 

 Osmn-Ks viridmjcns Le Sueur, .lonr. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. I. 230. May, 1818, 



Hostou to Newport; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna. Fishes. 243, pi. 39. fij;. 124. 



1842, streams flowiiif,' into Long IsLand Sound, Haekeusack ^: I'assaic 



ivers; Stoker, Syn. Fish. N. A. 197, 1846; Gx;nther. Cat. Fish. Brit. 



-Mns. vi, 107, ^s(r,. 



iisnnrn.s ninrdn.r Joiii.a.n \- (iii.HKUT, Bull. 10, L. S. Nilt. Mus. 2I:>3, 1883; 

 Bkan. Fislies ]vnna. f^4, pi. 26, fig. 46, 1893; Jordan & Evermann, 

 r.iill. 47. U. S. Nat. Mils. .123. 1896, pi. LXXXAa, fig. 228. 19O0; Ea-er- 

 MANN tV: Kendat.i,, Kept. F. S. Cominr. Fish & Fisheries for 1.894, 

 .".9:;, iMir,. L;ike .MemiJlireniagog & Lake Chaniplain. 



The smell h;is ;ni eluiignie and somewhat compressed body and 

 a l'ii-. iM.iiiie,! heiMl. will) til,. h,\v,.|- j:i\v pioject ing. The mouth 



