FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 369 



Tl)e ;^rooI^ ^cicl^er. 



The common brook sucker or black sucker is an abundant and well-known fish. 

 It makes its way up the brooks and small streams in the spring to spawn and may 

 then be taken in large numbers. It is a large fish for the small streams in which it 

 spawns, and one may often see specimens weighing from three to five pounds in 

 water so shallow that their backs are out. 



As a food fish it is almost worthless in some waters, being soft, bony and flavor- 

 less. In many places it is captured by the cart-load and used upon the land as 

 fertilizer. The young of this species make excellent bait for the pike and bass. 



aalt-Water Percl). 



The cunner, chogset or salt-water perch is one of the most abundant of fishes 

 along our rocky shores, and one which is a favorite with the younger anglers. It 

 can be caught with hook and line at almost any pier or about any wreck along the 

 coast as far south as New Jersey, and its numbers are so great that no time is wasted 

 in waiting for a bite. 



Almost anything in the way of animal food, such as clams, mussels, crabs, etc., 

 may be used for bait, and a hungry swarm of little fishes will collect about the hook 

 as soon as it reaches the water. It is a small species, one of half a pound being con- 

 sidered large. Although so small, it is a general favorite for the table. 



Many of the fishermen about our large cities and seashore resorts devote a good 

 part of their time during the summer months to the capture of this species. They 

 are taken by hand lines and also by nets and placed in floating cars made of wood 

 with holes bored in the sides to admit the sea water. In these they may be kept 

 alive for some time and taken out as required. The fishermen usually skin them, 

 leaving the heads on, and they are sold in strings or bunches of a dozen to the 

 string regardless of their size or weight. About the wharves and rocks on the shore 

 the larger specimens are usually scarce, but a few fathoms from the beach over 

 rocky bottom, where Irish moss abounds, fair-sized ones may be obtained and good 

 sport had with this fish. 



Who does not recall on a quiet summer afternoon at one of our seashore resorts, 

 seeing a number of old weather-tanned fishermen, each in his little boat anchored a 

 few rods from shore, engaged in fishing for cunners and the next morning early see- 

 ing one of these same fishermen call at the cottage door with strings of cunners for 

 sale ? I am sure the cunner adds materially to the pleasure of a few days at the shore. 

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