276 Modern Fishcultnre in Fresh and Salt Water. 



down to the little "skillypots" which sun themselves 

 on logs, is like descending from tiger hunting to shoot- 

 ing rabbits. The turtles before mentioned never sun 

 themselves on logs. They may float on the water a 

 few minutes when they come up for air, but they re- 

 main in the water at all times, except when eggs are 

 to be laid on land for the sun to hatch. Here is a grand 

 division not noticed in the books. From the big "slid- 

 ers" of the South to the painted and spotted pond tur- 

 tles of the North, they are all fish eaters. 



Birds. — All ducks eat some small fish occasionally, 

 and some birds live almost exclusively upon them. These 

 are the grebes, helldivers, loons, gannets, pelicans, cor- 

 morants, the mergensers or sheldrakes, herons (often 

 miscalled "cranes"), bald eagle, osprey or "fish-hawk," 

 and kingfisher. The gulls eat fish, or any other thing 

 that comes handy, but as they are not divers it is only 

 the dead or injured fish that come to the surface which 

 they can get. 



The Kingfisher. — This jolly bird is common every- 

 where, whether up some little trout stream, which the 

 angler has just discovered, but which the kingfisher 

 knew years before, or along the rocks and beaches of 

 old ocean, where it seeks its prey among the breakers. 

 There is no bit of fresh or salt water on this continent 

 that the kingfisher does not frequent and where its 

 cheery whir, like the song of the reel, is not heard. Every 

 youthful angler saw one on his first fishing trip, and 

 also learned its name, which fortunately is the same 

 from Florida to Alaska. The Germans call it the icebird 

 (Eisvogel), and the name seems inappropriate, al- 

 though it often remains all winter along the northern 

 coast, near open waters. 



Once I cast a minnow for black bass, and some fish 



