A Glance at Fishculture. ig 



hivorous cats, as the pike eats nothing but fish, while 

 the other two vary their diet with an occasional worm 

 or fly; the trout, when wild, may be also classed with 

 those fishes, but under domestication its appetite, like 

 that of the domestic dog, can be changed into one nearly 

 resembling that of the omnivorous hog. This, however, 

 requires to be received with some caution, as, .although 

 trout have been kept on corn bread and "dog biscuit," 

 and are reported, by apparently good authority, as thriv- 

 ing upon that diet, yet it remains to be proved that they 

 will breed freely under those conditions. If so, then, 

 and not until then, it can be claimed that trout have been 

 turned into vegetarians. Still this fish is not so much of 

 a fish eater as those named above until it reaches a 

 weight of over a pound, when it needs a more sub- 

 stantial meal than flies and worms, although it still takes 

 them as entrees. 



Perhaps those of our native fishes which more nearly 

 resemble the herbivora at least in their gregarious 

 habits, if not entirely in diet are included in the fami- 

 lies known to scientists as the Cyprinidce and Catostom- 

 idce, which may be said to include all the toothless 

 fishes of our fresh waters which have only one dorsal 

 fin, composed entirely of soft rays, excepting the her- 

 ring-like forms. The largest of these are the sucker 

 tribes, which, in the tributaries of the Mississippi, often 

 reach a weight of eight to ten pounds in the species lo- 

 cally known as "buffalo" and "red horse." But they 

 are not worth raising, for the carp is in the sahie class, 

 is a better table fish and is easily raised, but it is of little 

 value in the cool waters of the North and will be con- 

 sidered later. 



Fishes are as susceptible to the influences of domesti- 

 cation as any other animals, and perhaps our brook trout 



