414 
ORDERS OF FISHES— SUCKERS, CARP AND MINNOWS 
thereby; but this charge remains to be proven. 
The chances are as ninety-nine to one that the 
choke-bore shot-gun is the real and the only cause 
of the decrease in wild ducks. 
It is also claimed that Carp eat the eggs of 
other fishes ; which is extremely probable, for very 
many fishes do that. 
Whatever may be said for or against the de- 
sirability of the Carp in America, one important 
fact remains unassailed. That fish is now thor- 
oughly established in our waters, and is here to 
stay, just as much as the English sparrow. It 
is rapidly coming into demand as a market fish. 
“ Over seven million pounds are consumed yearly 
in New York City. From the Illinois River 
over six million pounds are taken annually; 
and over seventeen million pounds are now 
marketed annually in the United States. At 
Port Clinton, near the western end of Lake Erie, 
great quantities are taken, and placed in large 
ponds until the market is ripe for them, when 
they are taken out and sold. Hundreds of tons 
are skinned, sent to the markets of Cincinnati, 
Louisville and St. Louis, and sold as buffalo 
fish.” (C. H. Townsend.) 
Minnows. — No common fishes of our country, 
it is safe to say, are so little understood, or so 
generally misunderstood, as those classed under 
the above name. To most persons a “Minnow” 
is a tiny young fish, from one to three inches in 
length, useful only as bait for bass, and other 
fishes. 
The Minnow Family contains (says “Ameri- 
can Food and Game Fishes”) 200 genera, and 
more than 1,000 species, of which about 225 are 
found in our waters. 
Many a Minnow only two inches in length is 
a fully-grown fish; but some species of Minnows 
attain a length of from one to two feet. One of 
the Pacific coast species (the Squaw-Fish) some- 
times reaches a length of 4 feet. 
For obvious reasons, it is impracticable to 
attempt to set forth even the leading species of 
this extensive Family, but it is proper to men- 
tion that to it belong the Hornyhead, of the 
Ohio and Mississippi valleys, the Fallfish of 
the northern Atlantic states, the Common Chub 
of the northeastern states, the Columbia Chub 
of the far northwestern states, and the Utah 
Lake Chub of Utah and northwestern Wyoming. 
