LarGE AND ANxIous FAMILIEs. 41 
CHAPTER II. 
FECUNDITY OF FISHES. 
First. Mammalia, including whales, porpoises, and all fish- 
es which bring forth alive and suckle their young, whether 
herbivorous or carnivorous, seldom have more than one or 
two young at a birth, which sailors term calves. 
Second. The families of which the salmon and trout are 
the heads are called by naturalists the genus Salmo. These 
fishes have the palpable mark of an adipose second dorsal 
fin; their meat is of a tint between mallow and pink, and 
they are regarded by anglers and epicures as the highest 
game and most luxurious fishes of the oviparous class, or 
those fishes which replenish their species by laying eggs, 
which are vivified by the milt of the male, and then, after a 
time, the eggs hatch in the water. This process is common 
to all egg-laying fishes; but, while eggs of the salmo genus 
require from three to four months to hatch, those ef the che 
pea genus hatch in as many days. Seth Green hatched shad 
artificially on the Connecticut River within forty hours from 
the time the ova and milt fell into the hatching-boxes in the 
stream—being the main current of the river—and not in 
boxes so placed as that a stream should run through or over 
them, but anchored so as to float in the current of the river, 
submerging a sufficient portion of them for keeping the eggs 
covered with water to a sufficient depth. A salmon is sup- 
posed to lay a thousand eggs for every pound the mother 
fish weighs, consequently they average from ten to thirty 
thousand for each pair. 
Third. Included in this class are all the oviparous tribes 
but those of the genus Salmo, The number of eggs in the 
