282 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



season is about the same as for the brook trout. The colors of 

 the male .in the breeding season are gorgeous, and the sight of 

 a host of spawning fish in the water is one to be remembered. 

 Many large and small trout of this kind have been deposited 

 in Lake George and other suitable waters of the state. 



Family j^rgentinidae: 



Smelts 



Genus osmerus (Artedi) Linnaeus 



Body elongate, compressed; head long, jDointed; mouth wide, 

 the slender maxillary extending to past the middle of the eye, 

 lower jaw projecting, preorbital and suborbital bones narrow; 

 maxillaries and premaxillaries with fine teeth, lower jaw with 

 small teeth, which are larger posteriorly, tongue with a f ew^ 

 strong, fanglike teeth, largest at the tip, hyoid bone, vomer, pala- 

 tines and pterygoids with wide set teeth; gill rakers long and 

 slender; branchiostegals 8; scales large, loose, 60 to 70 in the 

 course of the lateral line; dorsal small, about midway of the 

 body, over the ventrals; anal rather long; vertebrae about 40; 

 pyloric caeca small, few. Small fishes of the coasts of Europe 

 and northern America, sometimes ascending rivers; delicate in 

 fiesh and considerabh^ valued as food. (After Jordan and Ever- 

 mann) 



143 Osmerus mordax (Mit chill) 



Smelt J Ice Fish 



Atherina mordax Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N, Y. I, 446, 1815, New 

 York. 



Osmerus viridescens Le Sueur, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. I, 230, May, 1818. 

 Boston to Newport; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 243, pi. 39, fig. 124, 

 1842, streams flowing into Long Island Sound, Hackensaek & Passaic 

 .T-ivers; Storee, Syn. Fish. N. A. 197, 1846; Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. 

 Mus. VI, 167, 1866. 



Osmerus mordax Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 293, 1883; 

 Bean, Fishes Penna. 64, pi. 26, fig. 46, 1898; Jordan & Evermann, 

 Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 523, 1806, pi. LXXXVI, fig. 228, 1900; Ever- 

 mann & Kendall, Rept. V. S. Commr. Fish it Fisheries for 1804, 

 59'3, 1896, Lake Meniphreinagog & Lake Chaniiplain. 



The smelt has an elongate and somewhat compressed body and 

 a long, pointed head, with the lower jaw jjrojecting. The mouth 



