The Hornyhead 



in the Snake River basin above Shoshone Falls. In Utah Lake 

 it is exceedingly abundant, as it is also in Jacksons Lake, 

 Yellowstone Lake and other similar waters, where, owing to its 

 large size, it is of some importance as a food-fish. It is said 

 to be very destructive to the eggs of trout, a belief which may 

 be justified by the facts, but we are not aware that the matter 

 has ever been fully investigated. 



Besides this species of Leuciscus there are in America about 

 24 other species, all of which are small and of little importance 

 except as boy's fishes. With a few exceptions they are species 

 of the Western States, and are perhaps most valuable to the 

 Indians or in those regions where better fish are rare. 



Then in Lake Tahoe, the Klamath Lakes, and various other 

 lakes of Nevada, California and Oregon are found three species 

 of the genus Ruiilus, closely related to Leuciscus, none of them 

 of much food value. 



Hornyhead 



Hybopsis kentuckiensis (Rafinesque) 



The hornyhead is found from Pennsylvania to Wyoming and 

 south to Alabama, on both sides of the Alleghanies; everywhere 

 common in the larger streams, seldom ascending small brooks; 

 one of our most widely distributed and best known minnows. 



In different parts of its range it is known as the hornyhead, 

 river chub, Indian chub, or jerker. 



Wherever it is found at all, every boy who goes a-fishing is 

 familiar with it. As a game-fish it is the most active and vigorous 

 of its tribe. Any sort of hook baited with an angleworm or 

 white grub is a lure the hornyhead can seldom resist, and he bites 

 with a vim and energy worthy of a better fish. The fight he makes, 

 though it would not wholly satisfy the veteran black bass angler, 

 is quite enough to fill the youthful Walton with unbounded joy and 

 pride. But as his experiences widen his chief interest in the horny- 

 head lies in the fact that it is one of the best of live baits for nobler 

 fish. For muskallunge, pickerel, walleyed pike, and black bass, of 

 either species, as a live bait it is not surpassed ; large individuals for 

 muskallunge and increasingly smaller ones for the others, those -for 

 the small-mouthed black bass being not over 3 to 5 inches in length. 



71 



