Their most usual height of flight above the surface of the water is only two or three feet; but the larger species sometimes spring fifteen or twenty feet, and it is not unfrequent for whole shoals of them to fall on board of ships that navigate the seas of warm climates. 13. The flying-fish are usually regarded with much interest by the mariner in tropical seas, as they are sometimes the only objects that for hours, and even days, break in upon the monotony of the scene. Their sudden darting upon the sight, and as sudden departure, like flashes of momentary light, are thus described by the poet Montgomery: "Yet while I look'd, A joyous creature vaulted through the air The aspiring fish that fain would be a bird, On long, light wings, that flung a diamond-shower Of dew-drops round its evanescent 12 form, 14. In its own element the flying-fish is perpetually harassed by the dorados, tunny, bonito, and other fishes of prey. If it endeavors to avoid them by having recourse to the air, it either meets its fate from the gulls or the albatross which are constantly on the alert to seize it, or it is forced down again into the mouths of other enemies who keep pace below with its aerial excursion. Yet the flying-fishes themselves ^ THE CAT-FISH FAMILY.-1. Brown Cat-fish, Pimelodus pullus. 2. Common Cat-fish, or Horned Pout, Pimelodus catus. The Cat-fish family embraces the numerous fresh-water fish which are known in this country by the common names of cat-fish, horned pouts, and bull-heads. They mostly inhabit muddy streams and lakes, are destitute of scales, sluggish in their movements, and, like the famous fishing-frog or angler, to which they bear some resemblance, depend more upon stratagem than swiftness to seize their prey. The different species vary in length from three or four inches to four feet; and some are said to have been caught in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers measuring eight feet in length. feed on smaller fish, and these latter on those still below them; and thus, in one continued round of rapacity, the inhabitants of the deep prey upon each other. 1 €ÄR-NIV'-O-ROUS, feeding on flesh. 2 ÎN'-GOT, an unwrought bar of gold. 4 TI-NY or TIN'-Y, very small ; little. 7 PIG'-MENT, a paint. 8 BEL'-O-NE, Latin name for this fish. 9 SER-RIED (ser'-rid), close; crowded. 10 SUC-CUMB', yield; submit to. 11 MO-NOT'-O-NY, uniformity; want of variety. 12 EV-A-NES'-CENT, fleeting; quickly passing away. LESSON VII.-TO THE FLYING-FISH. 1. WHEN I have seen thy snow-white wing 2. But when I see that wing so bright 3. O Virtue'! when thy clime I seek', And plunge again to depths below' ; But, when I leave the grosser throng With whom my soul hath dwelt so long', Let me, in that aspiring day, Cast every lingering stain away', And, panting for thy purer air', Fly up' at once', and fix' me there'!-MOORE * LESSON VIII.-SOFT-RAYED BONY FISHES, WITH ABDOMINAL VENTRAL FINS- Continued. [Salmon and Trout, and Herring and Pilchard Families.] SALMON AND TROUT FAMILY.-1. White-fish of the Lakes, Coregonus albus. 2. Common Sea Salmon, Salmo salar. 3. New York Brook Trout, Salmo fontinalis. 4. Troutlet. 5. Great Lake Trout of Europe, Salmo ferox. 1. OUR remaining notices of this order of the bony fishes embrace the Salmon and Trout, and the Herring and Pilchard families. Of all the fresh-water fishes of northern latitudes, those comprising the salmon and trout family are the most important in an economical point of view. To the naturalist, also, they are full of interest, as the history of many of them is chiefly curious; while with the angler many of the species are preferred to every other kind of fish as objects on which to exercise his skill. 2. The common sea salmon, which is the largest species of the family, is both a salt-water and a fresh-water fish. They invariably breed in fresh water, while they find their most nutritious food, and other conditions most favorable to their growth and general health, in salt water. They begin to enter rivers in spring, and continue ascending during the summer, but chiefly when the rivers are swollen by rains, when they generally advance with some rapidity, often, it is supposed, at the rate of twenty-five miles a day. 3. So strong is the impulse that urges these fish on, that they overcome obstacles which, to an animal so formed, we should be inclined to pronounce insurmountable. They frequently make perpendicular leaps to the height of twelve or fourteen feet, thus surmounting waterfalls and other obstacles which the rocky bed of a river often presents to their progress. By the time they reach the upper and shallow portions of the river, these fish have assumed their most brilliant hues. Selecting some gravelly bottom, they then deposit their spawn, and cover it with a thin layer of sand. 4. With this the parental duties of the fish cease; they lose their bright colors, become lean and emaciated, and, after reposing a while in the depths of some neighboring pool, they commence their progress down the river for the purpose of regaining the ocean, where they are speedily invigorated, and restored to their former condition. In England the spawning season is from October to the end of February; but the salmon which ascend the St. Lawrence appear in Lake Ontario in April, and leave it in October or November. 5. The eggs or spawn of the salmon continue under the sand where deposited, before hatching, in general from a hundred to a hundred and forty days. The first migration1 of the young fish to the sea usually takes place late in the spring of their second year. They are then called salmon-smelts,* or samlets. On reaching the mouth of the river, they remain for a time where the water is brackish2 by the mixture of salt-water, and, thus prepared for the change, they launch out into the sea, where they rapidly increase in size and vigor. 6. The common brook trout is so variable, both in color and markings, that scarcely two individuals from separate localities will answer to the same description. It is said that in England—and no doubt the same is true in this countryin lakes and rivers fed by dark waters from boggy moors, the tints become very deep, the back appearing almost black, and the sides and belly of an intense yellow, with the spots very large. The colors are believed to accommodate themselves to the tint of the water, and to the prevailing tone of the bottom, whether of rock or gravel, or softer substance; but, whatever may be the cause of this singular adaptation, * The true smelts are a small fish of the Salmon family, five or six inches in length, but they are not the young of the salmon. They are taken in large quantities along our At lantic coast from New Jersey to Labrador, and are often sold by measure. there can be no doubt that it contributes to the concealment and safety of the fish, just as we often observe, in land animals, an assimilation of color to the places they frequent. HERRING AND PILCHARD FAMILY.-1. The Mossbonker, or Hard-head, Alosa menhaden (very abundant on the shores of Long Island and Mass. It is seldom eaten). 2. The Pilchard, Clupea pilchardus. 3. The Anchovy, Engraulis engrasicolus. 4. American Shad, Alosa præstabilis. 5. The Herring, Clupea harengus. 7. The Herring and Pilchard family embraces several varieties of the herring, the pilchard, the common shad, and the anchovy of the Mediterranean. The common herring of the Atlantic, so well known as an article of food, is taken in vast quantities in drift nets, in the meshes of which it becomes entangled in attempting to pass through them. Formerly the herring were supposed to descend in a mighty army, early in the season, from the Arctic Seas, and then to divide and spread over the English coasts; but it is now believed that they winter in the deep water of the northern temperate regions, and only seek the shores and shallow portions of the ocean for the purpose of depositing their spawn. 8. The common American shad, which differs only in trifling particulars from what is known as the allice shad of Europe, is a beautiful and valuable fish, from one to two feet in length. It enters our rivers from the sea early in the season to deposit its spawn, and, unlike most of the family to which it belongs, comes from the southern instead of the northern In the rivers of Georgia and the Carolinas it usually makes its appearance in January or February; in March it arrives at Norfolk; at New York, early in April; and on the coasts of New England still later. These fish ascend the Hud seas. |