FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 1 93 



We wish to state here for the sake of exposing some bits of folk lore (based, as is 

 most folk lore, upon ignorance), that they contain no venom whatever, and can inflict 

 no injury whatever upon man, neither by bite nor sting; neither is the flesh poisonous 

 to man in eating it, excepting after the alimentary canal has long been atrophied at 

 spawning time and the bile and catabolic products being unable to escape become 

 spread throughout the entire system of the lamprey and cause all the flesh to assume 

 a green color, as will be explained later. It is thought by many persons that they will 

 attack people while in the water, and that a new hole comes in the side of the neck 

 each year, as the rattles are supposed to come on a rattler's tail, or as the wrinkles 

 come on a cow's horn, but these suppositions are, of course, false. The holes in the 

 sides of the neck are openings into the gill pouches through which the water flows to 

 •carry its dissolved air to the gills to purify the blood, and their number is always 

 seven. Lampreys have no means whatever of inflicting any injury upon man, neither 

 directly nor indirectly, excepting through their economic effect in destroying the fishes 

 that he would use as food. This destruction, however, is very great. 



There are fifteen species of lampreys known to scientists, from the waters (mostly 

 rivers) of temperate regions. There are nine species and one variety represented in 

 North America. An excellent account and descriptions of these by Messrs. Jordan 

 and Fordice can be found in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences for 

 1886. The representatives of some of the American species are very rare, having 

 been collected but a few times. Among these rare collections we can here chronicle 

 a specimen of the Yellow Lamprey of the Mississippi Valley (Icht/iyomyzon castancus 

 Girard), taken by us in the summer of 1899 in Meredosia Bay, Illinois River, III. , while 

 acting as Field Naturalist for the Illinois State Biological Station. 



Kinds of Lampreys in New York. There are four species of lampreys found in the 

 State of New York, as follows: The Silver Lamprey (Ichthyomyzon concolor Kirtland), 

 found in Lakes Erie and Ontario of our waters, and doubtless spawning in their 

 affluents. 



The Sea Lamprey {Petromyzon marinus Linnaeus), found in the Hudson River and 

 in the Susquehanna far up into the State of New York. They come into these streams 

 and their tributaries to spawn, and their larvas are extensively taken from along the 

 banks and used as bait in fishing. There is a great demand for them for this purpose 

 along the Susquehanna River, although larval lampreys are not thus used in the 

 central part of the State. The advantage of larval lampreys for bait is that they are 

 lively, moving all the time and attracting the attention of such fishes as are hunting 

 for moving and living material upon which to feed, and they are very tough. One 

 young lamprey will often endure long enough to catch two or three or even more 

 "voracious fishes. If the fishermen in the central part of the State would learn to use 

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