A PATRIOTIC SPECIES OF GRAYLING. 



Over in Michigan, said Mr. Charles H. Fuller, the Chicago Adver- 

 tising Agent, the principal game fish, or at least the most beautiful, is the 

 gravling. You know the scientific name of this fish is Thymallus 

 Tricolor^ the latter having reference to the three beautiful colors with 

 which it is adorned. For many years past I have taken great pleasure 

 in grayling fishing, and it occurred to me that by systematic breeding 

 the coloration of the fish could be controlled and modified, to a certain 

 extent, thus making a distinct branch of the species, peculiarh' American. 



With this idea in my mind, I began a systematic and elaborate system 

 of fish culture, selecting the best specimens, and by a method originating 

 in my own brain, I finally succeeded in producing a beautiful combination 

 of colors. The dorsal fin of the graj'ling is its chief mark of beauty, 

 rising to a height of perhaps three inches, extending along the back nearly 

 half the length of the fish, and waving in the clear water like a beautiful 

 banner, with rainbow tints. In the arrangement of colors I have secured 

 a blending in regular order of the red, white and blue, and at the lower half 

 of the fin, close to the back, my new species shows the stars in perfect 

 arrangement, after the style of the American flag. 



Having accomplished this, I determined to train the fish and put them 

 to practical use. Through careful breeding I have succeeded in obtaining 

 quite a number of grayling in which the pectoral fins and the caudal fin, or 

 tail, were abnormally developed. By proper encouragement the fish soon 

 learned to take prodigious leaps from the water, and finally developed into 

 a distinct variety of flying fish. They are also sensible to the charms of 

 music, and now it is my custom on the Fourth of July, on Inaugural Day, 

 and every other patriotic occasion, to call the fish from the water, bv the 

 aid of a band playing the inspiring air of the " Star Spangled Banner," 

 to which tune my educated grayling keep perfect time, and flv over the 

 lawn in battalions to the admiration of all obser\ ers. 



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