THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY
EDITED BYCASPAR WHITNEY
BASS, PIKE, PERCH
AND OTHERS
BASS, PIKE, PERCH
AND OTHERS
BY
JAMES A. HENSHALL, M.D.
Author Of "Book Of The Black-Bass," "More About The Black-Bass."
"Camping And Cruising In Florida," "Ye Gods
And Little Fishes," ect.
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
London: Macmillan & co., Ltd
1903
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1903.
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped April, 1903.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION
In this volume are included all of the game-fishesof the United States east of the RockyMountains, except the salmons and trouts, andthe tarpon, jewfish, and other fishes of large size,which are described in other volumes of thisseries. As a matter of convenience I havegrouped the fishes in families, whenever possible,but in their sequence I have been guided chieflyby their importance as game-fishes, and not inaccordance with their natural order. The latterfeature, however, has been provided for in asystematic list on a subsequent page.
In order not to burden the text with matterthat might not be of general interest, the technicaldescriptions of the fishes of each group aregiven in small type at the head of each chapter;and that they may be readily understood bythe lay reader the following explanations seemnecessary.
The length of the head is from the point ofthe snout to the hindmost point or margin of thegill-cover. The length of the body is from the[vi]point of the snout to the base of the caudal fin,the fin itself not being included. The depth ofthe body is from the highest point of the dorsalline to the lowest point of the ventral line,usually from the base of the first dorsal fin tothe base of the ventral fin. The expression"head 5" means that the length of the head iscontained five times in the length of the body;the expression "depth 5" means that the depthof the body is contained five times in its length;"eye 5" means that the diameter of the eye iscontained five times in the length of the head.In describing the fins the spiny rays are denotedby Roman numerals, and the soft rays by Arabicnumerals, and the fins themselves by initials;thus "D. 9" means that the dorsal fin is singleand composed of nine soft rays; "D. IX, 10"means that the single dorsal fin has nine spinyrays and ten soft rays; when separated by ahyphen, as "D. X-12," it means that there