380H 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 14, 1889. 



MALE SILVER EEL. (By Coubtesy of the IT. S. Commissioner of Fish axd Fisheries.) 



THE SILVER EEL. 



THE question of our correspondent, Mr. Edwards, as 

 to the relation between the common yellow-bellied 

 eel of the markets and the silver eel of New York and 

 New England fishermen, recalls to mind an experience in 

 Great South Bay in the fall of 1884. Prof. Baird had 

 sent the writer and some of his assistants to Patchogue 

 to study the fishes of the bay and make collections upon 

 which to base a report. Among the many interesting 

 species taken during our stay was a remarkable eel, the 

 relations of which have proved not a little puzzling. At 

 my request, Prof. John A. Eyder studied the examples 

 dist'nguished by the short snout, large eye, and sharp 

 contrast of dorsal and ventral coloration, and pronounced 

 them to be males, but did not venture an opinion as to 

 what species they represent. We were both in doubt as 

 to whether or not we had found simply the male of the 

 common eel; and it may as well be admitted that neither 

 of us lias had opportunity since to resolve the doubt. I 

 have long suspected that we have two species of eel 

 (Anguilla) on our coast, and I hope that the keen obser- 

 vation of Mr. Edwards will soon enable us to prove the 

 right or wrong of this position. For his investigations 

 Prof. Ryder had also several specimens caught at Wood's 

 Holl, in November, 1881. Concerning the Great South 

 Bay individuals, he said (Bull. IT. S. F. C, 1885, page 1): 

 ■'In all four I found the lobulated organs, first described 

 by Syrski, in a condition of development which leaves no 

 doubt whatever that they are truly the male generative 

 glands of the animal. * * * The whole character of 

 the organs, both macroscopially and microscopically, is so 

 entirely different from that of the ovaries found in the 

 female, that there is no possibility of confounding 1 hem." 

 The Syrskian lobules of the male" are figured, en larged to 

 35 times and 200 times their diameter. The "series of 

 specimens from Wood's Holl * * * show the Syrskian 

 organs slightly larger than in the Fire Island specimens, 

 indicating possibly that functional maturity of the male 

 organs is not attained till midwinter. This is rendered 

 all the more probable from the fact that the young eels, 

 about 2in. long, which constitute the swarms which come 

 into fresh water in the spring, must have had three or 

 four months dming which to grow in order to reach the 

 dimensions which they attain, which would render it 

 probable that actual oviposition occurred sometime dur- 

 ing the months of December or January." Prof. Rvder 

 "takes pleasure in announcing that the male eel has been 

 positively identified from at least two points along our 

 Eastern coast, the animals in both instances showing the 

 male reproductive elements so far advanced in develop- 

 ment that there can be but little doubt if the animals had 

 been taken a few weeks later ripe spermatozoa would 

 have been found in the vasa deferentia of the testes." 



Mr. Edwards has found the female silver eel with the 

 ovaries approaching maturity, and at about the same time 

 of the year males have been taken at Wood's Holl and 

 Great South Bay far enough advanced sexually to be 

 distinguished from the female. It remains to be deter- 

 mined whether the eel shown in the accompanying figure 

 is the male of the common species of the markets or of 

 another and distinct species. It will be noticed that the 

 eye of this eel is very large, the snout short, the pectoral 

 fin long and the coloration peculiar, as indicated in the 

 name "silver eel" applied to it by fishermen. The belly 

 of the male is milk white, contrasting sharply with the 

 dark slate blue of the upper parts. The individuals col- 

 lected near Patchogue were all taken from salt or 

 brackish water. 



De Kay and Storer were disposed to consider the silver 

 eel as a variety of the common eel and not entitled to a 

 specific name. The former wrote concerning it as fol- 

 lows: 



"We have examined the silver eel of the fishermen, 

 and are disposed to consider it only as a variety of the 

 above | the common New York eel]. It is silvery gray 

 above, with a clear satiny white abdomen, separated 

 from the color above by the lateral line." (De Kay, New 

 York Fauna, Fish, page 811). The Anguilla argentea of 

 Lesueur is mentioned on a subsequent page among the 

 extralimital species occurring further north. The diag- 

 nosis of color corresponds very closely with De Kay's ob- 

 servations quoted above. 



Storer had specimens from a locality near Mr. Edwards's 



i my re P ort [° n the fi 8hes of Massachusetts] I in- 

 cluded a species which I supposed to be the argentea of 

 Lesueur. This was also contained in my 'Synopsis of 

 the Fishes of North America.' In October, 1845, my 

 friend, the late Dr. Yale, sent me a living specimen of 

 this fish from Holmes's Hole, where it is called the Ne- 

 shaw eel. I carefully compared this specimen with the 

 A. bostoniensis, and could not perceive characteristics 

 sufficiently well marked to make them distinct species. 

 The color of the Neshaw eel is rather more of a brown 

 than greenish, and the abdomen is destitute of the yel- 

 lowish tinge possessed in the common specimens in the 



market; but these differences may be dependent upon its 

 locality." Dr. Yale writes: "The Neshaw eel is taken 

 in all the ponds and lagoons connected with the sea on 

 the Vineyard, and in October and November in pots 

 while making its way from the ponds to the sea. It is 

 said that when the openings from the ponds are closed 

 they pass over the sand in the night." The common eel 

 is figured on Plate XXXIII. of this work, and this is one 

 of the few good illustrations of the species. If our readers 

 will compare the figure given in this article with figures 

 of the common eel in the works of DeKay and Storer, 

 and in the "Fishery Industry of the United States," or 

 the Standard Natural History, they will at once see my 

 reasons for doubting the pertinence of this male to the 

 common form and for suspecting that the silver eel of 

 Lesueur is something more than a myth. T. H. Bean. 



MAINE TROUT SHARKS. 



IT is a matter of regret that the trout family ascends 

 the smaller streams and brooks to spawn, and that 

 when the breeding furore is on the fish, both male and 

 female, is reduced to a state of stupor that it is easy for 

 man and beast to make it a prey, either to the desire to kill 

 or to use as food. It is true that nature has made the 

 fish unfit for human food at this time, though rendering 

 it helpless so far as its enemies are concerned. Even the 

 birds become an enemy of no mean order at this period 

 of the trout's existence. Just here comes in an idea that 

 may be new to some of the readers of the Forest and 

 Stream. Report is making the great blue hei on one of 

 the whost enemies of the trout, unless it is possibly the 

 demoralized guide, who hunts and traps in the autumn, 

 and the spawning trout in the small streams easily falls 

 to his thirst to destroy. Last September the trout in some 

 of the Maine streams leading into the best trout lakes 

 and ponds in that State were found to be far advanced 

 toward spawning. In fact, the season was uncommonly 

 early in this direction. In many streams enormous trout 

 were seen, that would take neither hook with bait nor fly, 

 but alas for human nature ! they were taken some way. 

 "W hen taken they were found to be far advanced toward 

 breeding, and evidently that was the reason for their 

 presence in waters so shallow. The fishermen who took 

 these trout and brought them to a certain camp were 

 taken to task for catching such fish, with the reason ex- 

 plained, and to their credit be it said, they agi eed it was 

 no sport and that henceforth they should let spawning 

 trout alone. But a day or two after word came by way 

 of the guides that several more of these trout had disap- 

 peared from the same stream — from the same spawning 

 beds. 



Matters were looking rather meanly for somebody 

 when a few days later several fine trout were washed 

 ashore just below the spawning bed. In then- backs 

 there was a hole nearly as large as a man's finger, which 

 looked as though made with some sort of a rude instru- 

 ment. Trout spearing on the spawning beds was sus- 

 pected. Who could it be? The dead trout were examined 

 more thoroughly. The wounds were ragged and peculiar. 

 If made with a spear, it must have been a very crude 

 one, and with a single tine. At last one of the guides 

 found a solution to the mystery. He twice observed a 

 great blue heron intently watching the close vicinity of 

 the spawning bed, and though the bird was too shy to 

 approach near enough to be sure of its movements, yet 

 the guide was convinced that the heron was the trout 

 spearer. The matter was referred to his uncle that eve- 

 ning, an older guide, and the uncle agreed that it is the 

 habit of the blue heron to strike at fish or frog in shallow 

 water, and that it is capable of driving its sharp beak 

 through the body of its prey. Hence the spike or spear 

 holes in the trout found. Now I do not desire to lay all 

 the destruction of trout on the spawning beds to the blue 

 heron, but I give the circumstances just as they happened 

 and the theory. Indeed this bird is already harassed 

 to the extent by hunters that it is fast becoming extinct, 

 and it would not be best to add the crime of trout stealing 

 to its death sentence, but it is possible that It is guilty of 

 destroying more trout than has been supposed heretofore. 



But the human destroyers of breeding trout are not yet 

 all dead or convinced of the meanness of their crimes. 

 Indeed they go into the woods in October, in the States 

 where the laws are framed to protect the trout in that 

 month. They are there for hunting, but the temptation 

 to add fishing to their pastime is very strong. They 

 have but one vacation in a year, and when fishing is 

 legal, then the game is in close time. Hence, under the 

 plea of getting a few trout to eat, they arm themselves 

 with rod and line. Their success is not great, but fre- 

 quently they electrify the whole camp with the size of a 

 trout they take. Indeed they are surprised themselves 

 at the monster trout they find, often in water quite shal- 

 low, in the same streams. He will neither take a bait 

 nor rise to a fly. Patience is exhausted, and the fish is 

 an easy prey to the pronged jig or grapnel. A party of 

 hunters lately returned to Boston took "what trout they 

 wanted to eat." But somehow "they did not taste as 

 good as expected." Sure enough. A trout in the breed- 



ing season is about as nice to eat as a farmer's cow just 

 before or after calving. One of the party took a big 

 trout, it weighed 61bs. and measured 24in. in length. 

 This is the account the hunter gave of it, though honestly 

 he did not understand that a trout of that length should 

 have weighed at least 81bs., and that 8-Jlbs. would not 

 have been in the least unusual. When questioned closely, 

 he confessed that the fish was "the meanest slab-sided 

 specimen" that he had ever seen, and he did not under- 

 stand it. "It probably was starved nearly to death in the 

 little stream." To any one familiar with the habits of this 

 fish the case was plain enough. Though it was a male 

 trout, it was a spent one. The cavities of its body had 

 been emptied of a pound or two of milt, if the truth 

 must be told in plain Avords. I explained the slab-sided 

 condition of the trout to the sportsman, who had honestly 

 confessed the breach of the fish law to me, and he owned 

 that he had never thought of the matter in that light. 

 He also, declared that he wanted no more breeding trout. 

 Hence it is often the case that ignorance of the habits 

 of fish and game is one reason that poaching is in- 

 dulged in, and often when the matter is brought before 

 the hunter in its true light, he resolves that he wants no 

 more illegal fish or game, and that if the open season on 

 deer and grouse falls on the close season for trout, it is 

 the fault of nature and not the game protective laws. 



Special. 



MOONEYE OR GOLDEYE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I wish some one at Neenah, Wis., or some other point 

 on Lake Winnebago, would write fully about the so- 

 called "mooneye," "mooneye shad" or "fresh-water 

 shad," which at a certain period each summer frequents 

 the river at the upper end of that lake in great schools. 

 The fish seems to resemble the cisco in its habits, for it 

 comes at periodical times and then disappears for the 

 remainder of the year. It attains a weight of 3 or 41bs., 

 bites a fly ravenously and affords very good sport, being 

 a strong and gamy fighter. I never saw one of the fish, 

 and don't know much about them. Mr. Chas. E. Burton, 

 of the Kankakee line, tells me of them, and says he has 

 been on the river when the fish were in, and" the sport 

 was great. August is usually the season, I understand. 

 I notice that the restaurants here in Chicago are now 

 offering "mooneye shad" on their bills of fare. 



I should like to ask how far West any reader of Forest 

 and Stream has taken the landlocked salmon. I am told 

 there are plenty of landlocked salmon in Burnside Lake, 

 near Eli, not very far distant above Duluth, and near a 

 short iron mine railway which runs north from Duluth. 

 The lake is near the boundary line between the United 

 States and the British possessions. I was told of this by 

 the cook on a railway boarding car at Kirton, Wis., and 

 the story was confirmed by the foreman of the gang. 

 Both of these men had lived in that country, engaged in 

 railroading on the construction department, and the latter 

 had been there within two years. The cook told me he 

 used to buy a 4 or 5-pound fish of the Indians for a small 

 piece of pork. The Indians brought down any quantity 

 of them to the railway, but the cook didn't know what 

 the fish were until a party of anglers, including an ex- 

 mayor of Minneapolis, came along and told him the name 

 of the fish. These anglers, the cook told me, were very 

 much excited over the discovery. I have never heard 

 directly from this lake, and of course have no means of 

 knowing positively that the fish in question was really 

 the landlocked salmon; but there has been a rumor cur- 

 rent in the West for a long time to the effect that the 

 landlocked salmon was found somewhere in the country 

 about Duluth. I wish some Duluth correspondent would 

 go into this. E, Hough. 



[The mooneye is referred to in books under the names 

 Hyodon tergisus, alosoides and selenops, the first being 

 found in Canada, the Great Lake region, and throughout 

 the Mississippi Valley. Hyodon alosoides occurs in the 

 Ohio Valley and northwestward to the Saskatchewan. 

 The mooneye is a near relative of the shad and alewife, 

 but its bones are larger and less numerous. Richardson, 

 in "Franklin's Journal," described the northern species 

 and gave some account of its habits. Again, in 1886, he 

 redescribed the fish and states that "it bites eagerly at 

 artificial fly or worm. * * * Its. flesh is white, re- 

 sembling that of the perch in flavor, and excelling it in 

 richness." He associates with it the names of "goldeye" 

 and "Naccaysh." "The Naccaysh is taken during the 

 summer months only, and in small numbers, in the gill 

 nets set for other fish." The 54th parallel of latitude 

 appears to be the northern limit of this species. Hyodon 

 tergisus, which is probably the one above mentioned, is 

 sometimes called "toothed herring" and "silver bass." It 

 inhabits large rivers and lakes and is supposed to retire 

 to deep water in winter. Its vigor, game qualities and 

 good flavor were known to Dr. Estes who considered it 

 one of the smartest of fishes and one of the most difficult 

 for the fishermen to hook. The third species of mooneye 

 belongs to the southern rivers and is probably inferior to 

 the others in size and flavor.] 



