SALMOMIDJE. 147 



fish much as the New Brunswickers do with the Capelin, literally, 

 I believe, feeding their hogs with them, they have already visibly 

 declined in magnitude, as well as decreased in number. 



They were formerly taken, weighing up to four pounds ; but now, 

 the half of that weight is regarded as an unusually fine fish. The 

 specimen which I have described above weighed two pounds and 

 three ounces, and was an uncommonly well-fed and delicious fish. 



With regard to their food, I can say nothing definitely ; the stom- 

 achs of those which I examined contained nothing but a blackish, 

 earthy substance, which resembled decayed vegetable matter, and 

 some small fragments of worms, or larvae of insects. 



I observed no thickening of the stomach, nor anything which 

 seemed to indicate their feeding on any shell-fish or molluscae. 



Mr. Cooper informs me that he recollects but a single instance of 

 one of these fish being taken with a bait. The fly, however, might 

 possibly prove more successful. 



The rarity, excellence, and peculiarity of the Otsego Lavaret, enti- 

 tle him to a place, as well as the noble race of which he is a member, 

 though in some degree destitute of the game qualities of his order. 

 My principal object, however, in introducing him in this place, was 

 first, to present the whole family of American Salmonida to my read- 

 ers, as complete as possible ; and secondly, to reclaim with all my 

 might against the absurdity of calling this fish a Bass, of the family 

 Percidtfj to which it has neither resemblance nor kindred. 



This absurdity, if possible, is rendered more flagrant by the fact 

 that there is yet another fish as distinct from this as possible, desig- 

 nated as the Oswego Bass, thfcugh it is no Bass either, but a Cormna, of 

 the family Scienida, called also the Lake Sheep's-Head, which, from 

 the similarity of title, is frequently confounded with this Cor.egonus, 

 or Lavaret, and also with the Black Bass of the St. Lawrence, which, 

 for the third time, is not properly a Bass, G-ristes Nigricans, and 

 which is again, through the similarity of names, confused with the 

 Sea Bass, Centropristes Nigricans, who is also blunderingly called 

 Black Bass. So that we have actually four fish as different one from 

 the other as any four things can be, all blundered up together in con- 

 fusion worse confounded, owing to the timidity of naturalists hesi- 

 tating to alter a misnomer originating in the ignorance of those who 



