11 PREFACE. 



" Mention should be made of the very creditable statistical work being done by 

 several of the States through Fish Commission Boards and industrial and statistical 

 bureaus. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and, doubtless, other States, have 

 made valuable contributions to the literature of fishery statistics, and many of the 

 Fish Commissions have from time to time presented original statistical information of 

 importance in their annual reports." 



It will be observed that this State is not mentioned specifically as having contributed 

 statistical information except through this Commission, for the reason that this State 

 has no separate statistical bureau such as exists in other States, and very naturally a 

 Fishery Commission, or a Forestry Commission, or both combined, is in a better 

 position to gather accurate information in regard to its own work than any bureau 

 organized for the purpose of gathering general statistics. This was exemplified in the 

 case of the United States Census Bureau when it took up the matter of the Fisheries 

 of the United States. 



When the Commissioners came to determine the scope of this report, it seemed 

 to be best that some of the fishes of the State should be figured, and as figures in black 

 and white, however faithful, appear to lack something, figures of some of the fishes in 

 colors were decided upon. The general color of a fish is not regarded as a sure guide to 

 species, and scientists consider the structure of a fish as well as its color in determining 

 species. The people generally regard color as of the first importance, and it would be 

 worse than useless to attempt to portray any fish in colors, unless it were done with 

 absolute fidelity in every detail. Mr. Sherman F. Denton, the artist of the United 

 States Fish Commission, was engaged to make sixteen color drawings of fishes and 

 game, and this he did so faithfully that they will serve to identify the originals of 

 the drawings, for fin rays and scale formation are as faithfully represented as the 

 external colors of the subjects. 



These color-drawings have been reproduced so exactly, that no colored figures of 

 fishes in existence exceed them for truthfulness or beauty of execution. They are abso- 

 lutely faithful reproductions, which can be said of no other work of this kind. For 

 perfectly fresh specimens of some of the fishes for the artist's use, the Commission is 

 indebted to Mr. Walter C. Witherbee, of Port Henry, and Mr. W. W. Whipple, of Glens 

 Falls. ' For the figures of the fishes and shellfish in black and white, thanks are due 

 to the United States Fish Commission for the use of original and accurate drawings. 



The swimming buck is reproduced through the courtesy of Forest and Stream 

 Publishing Company, and some of the deer hounds and deer heads through the 

 courtesy of Major Robert Lennox Banks and Mr. John L. Wendell, and the examples 

 were carefully selected from a great number submitted. That Judge Greene's article, 

 on the Chinese pheasant, might be properly illustrated, Mr. J. Roberts Mead, of 



