ISH 'riiirh/sixlli Aininnl Mrrliinj 



he was obliged to lie on the hank near tlie iio\ until the slia.l 

 hatched, with a pistol in his hand, to protect it. 



Another difficulty in our ojjg collection has been either an 

 excess or scarcity of male fish at the proper time, and still an- 

 other has l)i'on llic unr.\|MM-tc(l nio\cnu'ni of certain fish as. for 

 instance, the smell. Tlie haliits of the smell liave hecome ])i-etty 

 Well known, on Lon,u- Island especially, where we lake soinetliin,L;- 

 like a hundi-ed millions eai'ly in ihe spi-iiiL;-: and yet. the men 

 hesl acquainted with the hahits of the snieil have heen at a loss 

 sometimes to know wliei-e to find the lish. rs\ially lhe\- lam 

 u]) into the little creeks, not far from salt water, and deposit 

 their eggs in the sand and gra\«d : hut occas-onally they will 

 forsake a stream which has heen a favorite spawning ground for 

 them, for some uid<n()wn reason, and then they must he sought 

 for: and it is not \-ery easy work to hunt for smelt at night, be- 

 cause they spaMn only at night, and leave the streams just at the 

 break of day. 



We have had also a great deal of trouble because of the lack' 

 of infornuition about the results of work. Every fish cultnrist 

 wants to know whether his work is successful or not, and in our 

 state we try through the officers of the rod and gun clul)s and the 

 lish and ganu' leagues, to discovei' whether or not we succeed in 

 estal)lishing a species in given bodies of water. 



Just to illustrate how hard it is to obtain satisfactory infor- 

 mation. I will tell you an experience, without nu^ntioning any 

 names. A lake in western New York was stocked with ])ike 

 perch, at the request of a certain rod and gun clul». The presi- 

 dent of that club, a man of considerable intelligence, and su])- 

 posed to be \yv]\ ;u'quainted with common fish at least, informed 

 the liovs thai they were taking large numbers of young pike 

 perch in one body of water which he had stocked and in which, 

 he was es]>ecially interested. He was asked to >v\u\ a specimen, 

 which he said be would do: he was told how to )> reserve it, and 

 pivserved it. It came to the desk of tlu' fish cullui-ist. and when 

 Ihe package was opened it was found to he a sun lish. So that 

 we do not know now whether we haw succeedi'd in est^iblishing 

 the pike perch in that lake or not. 



Another il lusl I'al ion (d' the >anie d-tliculty occurred in \ho 

 central portion of New York. It was said ihal young pike peivh 



