170 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



ABDOMINAL 



MALACOPTERYGII. 



CVPRINIDA 



THE AMERICAN ROACH. 



LEUCISCUS RUTILUS 



THE AMERICAN ROACH is a pretty, lively little fish, common to most 

 of the ponds and small running streams of the Middle and Northern 

 States, and is closely analogous to the European fish of the same 

 name, although it never approaches it in size. In England the Roach 

 has been taken up to the weight of five pounds, in the United States 

 it rarely exceeds five or six inches in length, and together with its 

 congeners, the Chub and Dace, as they are generally termed, though 

 none of them identical with the European species, are seldom taken 

 except by schoolboys, and never put on the table except in remote 

 country districts where sea-fish, and the better inland varieties being 

 unknown, anything will pass muster, in this line, as dainties. 



The Roach is readily distinguished by his blood-red irides, and the 

 ruddy tinge which borders his pectoral, ventral, and anal fins. His 

 head is thick and obtuse at the snout, the labials coarse and fleshy. 

 The eye large, and situated midway between the tip of the snout and 

 the posterior margin of the gill-covers. The gill-covers ai-e mode- 



