A ScHOOL-BOY’s HOLIDAY RECREATION. 493 
Tur Hornep Dace. 
This is eminently the school-boy’s fish of the Middle States. 
Its burnished steel scales and fins, the latter edged with 
bright pink—like ribbon trimmings—and with its dark steel 
top of head armed all over with little points, render it, next 
to the brook trout, the prettiest fish of our small streams. 
It rises generously to the fly, preferring the red ibis, and 
when I have been wading a trout stream and fishing with 
the fly, this pretty rogue has annoyed me frequently by tak- 
ing the fly before the more wily trout had made up its mind 
to. It is an excellent pan-fish, and will take angle-worm ea- 
gerly; thus conferring great recreation to recuperate stu- 
dious school-boys on Saturdays and during vacations. It 
is to be fished for with hght perch rod, trout - hooks, light 
sinker, and quill- float. The size of the horned dace runs 
from one to three-eighths of a pound. 
The smooth-headed dace is a congener of the horned dace, 
and by many supposed to be the female, It is a fish of 
about the same size and appetite, though more plain in ap- 
pearance, being a light gray with white abdomen. 
The brook chub also disports in the same waters with 
these dace. It is a fish of about the same size, gray on back 
and sides, drab fins, and white belly. It is sprinkled all over 
with jet-black dots, no larger than a dot in writing. It is 
also a greedy fish for angle-worm; and in large creeks it 
rises to the plumptitude of a quarter of a pound. It is not 
at all like the river and lake chub, which sometimes scales 
three pounds; and though they will also take the fly—great- 
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