Adhesive Eggs. 227 



geons mouth over mud for the snails and other animal 

 life which they get, and we must only consider the 

 question of how much and what kind of animal life a 

 fish consumes in order to plant it in our lakes and 

 streams. 



Speaking as a fishculturist, I would, if I could, ex- 

 terminate every pike, pickerel and mascalonge in the 

 waters of the earth, for the reason that their diet is ex- 

 clusively fish, and they consume a hundred times their 

 weight in other fishes and then are not as good for the 

 table as some that they have eaten. 



As an angler, I take no note of what it costs in good 

 food fish to raise a pike to t-en pounds weight, if the 

 pike will only condescend to take my hook. This is a 

 logical appeal from Philip sober to Philip drunk. As 

 a fishculturist, the ratio of food consumed to value of 

 fish for market is a vital one, as much so as the grow- 

 ing of horses, cattle, pigs and poultry is to the farmer ; 

 but when my fly is cast, or a baited hook is spinning 

 astern, there is an alter ego, another self, watching for 

 results, and the latter fellow never stops to consider 

 whether his catch is worth all the food it has devoured 

 tc enable it to pull down the scales to a creditable point, 

 or whether the balance is on thfe other side. As a fish- 

 culiurist, I would like to exterminate the whole pike 

 family — pike, pickerel and mascalonge; but as an 

 angler, thinking only of personal sport, the point of 

 view differs. 



HABITS. 



Although not a climbing fish, like that peculiar 

 perch of India which ascends trees, yet the crappies 

 are often found in tree tops, when the trees have fallen 



