BRIEF NOTES ON FISHES. 423 



in the spring, they should have a kindly word spoken of 

 them. Unfortunately, they come in such a stupid, list- 

 less manner, that no enthusiasm is roused in watching 

 them, as there is when the first flock of blackbirds 

 darkens the sky in March. When I see the suckers in 

 March moving slowly up the creeks, I always think of 

 the 



" ten thousand men 



That marched up hill and then marched down again." 

 There does not appear to be any animation about them ; 

 no points of interest that stay our footsteps for a moment. 

 As an urchin of five summers once remarked to me, 

 " Does they knows what they's come for ? " It is an open 

 question whether they do or not. I have found what I 

 take to be their bones in Indian shell-heaps on Crosswicks 

 Creek, and my only wonder is that the Indians should 

 have thought them fit to eat. 



The manual, at hand, to which I refer for the most 

 recent nomenclature of the "species" found in these 

 waters, allows us five varieties of " suckers." 



Of these there are two, known locally as " river suck- 

 ers," which throng the river and creeks in March and 

 then very generally disappear, or, in other words, return 

 whence they came, to the deep waters of the lower, tide- 

 water portion of the river. A third species, which my 

 neighbors call the " chub-sucker," is also found in the 

 river, but, unlike the others, is equally abundant the year 

 through. It is particularly obnoxious to those who are 

 fond of line-fishing, as it is believed to be, of all spawn- 

 eaters, the most persistent and destructive. I have en- 

 deavored to trace out the origin of this common impres- 

 sion, but without success. That it is true of it I doubt. 

 A still less abundant species of this group is that known 

 locally as the " mud-sucker." This local name is said by 



