CARP , DA CE AND MINNO W. 
43 1 
ket, though usually consumed by its captors. When eaten fresh, as a pan- 
fish, it is by no means despicable, and to my own taste, as palatable as 
black-bass or flounder. 
The early American angling authorities prized this fish more than those 
of to-day. Brown bursts into rhyme when he speaks of it: 
“ A capricious little fish 
That swims in pond and stream, 
And a dainty on the dish 
Is the cautious, cunning Bream.” 
“ Being possessed,” he continues, in a very sober vein “of a large 
amount of caution, they require all the skill and patience of the angler 
and the finest kind of tackle. A trout fish rod with a fine line and a 
good-sized trout hook baited with a grub angle-worm, cricket or grass¬ 
hopper, if cautiously used, will generally tempt him from his element. 
He is good on the platter.” 
Scott and Norris also approve its claims to consideration as a game fish, 
and it is said by those who know, to rise readily to an artificial fly. 
The Shiner, Minnilus or Luxilus cornutus , also called “Red-fin” or 
“ Red Dace,” abounds in all streams from New England to Kansas and 
Alabama, being in most waters more numerous than any other species. In 
clear, cool lakes it is often found in great schools. At the mouths of small 
rivers in Lake Michigan hundreds of them can be taken in a short time on 
a small hook baited with worms or flies. This species reaches a length of 
