XIV 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
The Reports and Bulletins of the United States Fish Commission must 
not be overlooked, and the reports of the State Commissions, the reports 
of the Canadian Department of Fishery, the bulletin of the French Society 
of Acclimation, the circulars of the German Fischerei-Verein, and the 
publications of the London and Berlin Fisheries Exhibitions are worthy of 
study. 
I do not think that the term “ game fish ” has ever been properly defined. 
It is generally supposed to apply to fishes which are active, wily and cour¬ 
ageous, and whose capture requires skill or cunning—those, in short, 
which afford sport to the sportsman. As a matter of fact, although most 
food fishes are not game fishes, no fish which is not of the highest rank as 
a table delicacy is rated by Americans as a game fish. The barbel, the 
dace and the roach, the pets of the father of angling, classical in the pages 
of sportsman’s literature, are despised by new world authorities, and are 
now considered “coarse fish ” even by English writers. Yet they afford 
excellent sport—sport which in England tens of thousands enjoy to every 
one who gets the chance to whip a salmon or trout line over preserved 
waters. 
“ Game” in law and every day usage is a term employed to describe 
wild animals —-feres natures , in which no man holds personal title of 
possession. Game birds are those which can only be obtained occasion¬ 
ally and with difficulty, and which, having been obtained, are worthy the 
notice of the epicure. Game fishes are rated in much the same manner, 
it appears to me. If not, why were the Pompano, the King-fish and the 
California Salmon and the Spanish Mackerel included among the twenty 
selected to be painted by Kilbourn for Scribner’s atlas of the game fishes 
of the United States. . Surely not because they afford sport to the sports¬ 
man. Some years ago I defined the term as follows: 
Game fishes are those which by reason of the courage, strength, beauty 
and the sapidity of their flesh are sought for by those who angle for sport 
with delicate fishing tackle. 
Now I should simply say that— 
A game fish is a choice fish, a fish not readily obtained by wholesale 
methods at all seasons of the year, nor constantly to be had in the mar¬ 
kets—a fish, furthermore, which has some degree of intelligence and cun¬ 
ning, and which matches its own wits against those of the angler, requir¬ 
ing skill, forethought and ingenuity to compass its capture. 
