BRANCH CHORDATA; CLASS PISCES: THE FISHES 283 



orous fish, making up by their fecundity and their insig- 

 nificance for their lack of defensive armature. In some 

 species the male is adorned in the spring with bright 

 pigment, red, black, blue, or milk-white. In some cases, 

 too, it has bony warts or horns on its head or body. Such 

 forms are known to the boys as horned dace. 



Most interesting to the angler are the fishes of the 

 salmon and trout (fig. 115) family, because they are gamy, 



FIG. 115. The rainbow-trout, Salmo iri..ens. (From specimen.) 



beautiful, excellent as food and above all perhaps because 

 they live in the swiftest and clearest waters in the most 

 charming forests. The salmon live in the ocean most of 

 their life, but ascend the rivers from the sea to deposit 

 their eggs. The king salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawy- 

 tscha) of the Columbia goes up the great river more than 

 a thousand miles, taking the whole summer for it, and 

 never feeding while in fresh water. . Besides the different 

 kinds of salmon, the black-spotted or true trout, the charr 

 or red-spotted trout of various species, the whitefish 

 (Coregonus), the grayling ( Thymallus signifer) and the 

 famous ayu of Japan belong to this family. 



In the sea are multitudes of fish forms arranged in many 

 families. The myriad species of eels agree in having no 

 ventral fins and in having the long flexible body of the 

 snake. Most of them live in the sea, but the single 



