he fish life
of the lakes, ponds, rivers, brooks, bays, estuaries, and coasts of
the United States; and no more important service can be rendered our
American boys than to teach them to become familiar with our native
food and game fishes, to realize their needs, and by example and
precept to {106} endeavor to secure for the fishes fair consideration and
treatment.

[Illustration: _Esox lucius_--Common pike pickerel]

[Illustration: _Oncorhynchus tschawytscha_--Chinook salmon]

[Illustration: _Coregonus clupeiformis_--Common whitefish]

[Illustration: _Salvelinus fontinalis_--Brook trout: speckled trout]

[Illustration: _Ictalurus punctatus_--The speckled catfish]

Classes of Fish

Fishes may be roughly classified as (1) fresh water, (2) migratory
between fresh and salt water, and (3) marine. Among the families of
American fresh-water fishes that are conspicuous on account of their
size, abundance, or economic importance, or all of these, there may be
mentioned the sturgeons, the catfishes, the suckers, the minnows or
carps, the pikes, the killifishes, the trouts, salmons, and
whitefishes, the perches, and the basses, and sun fishes.

Migratory Fish

The migratory fishes fall into two groups, the anadromous and the
catadtomous. The anadromous fishes pass most of their lives in the
sea, run up stream only for the purpose of spawning, and constitute
the most valuable of our river fishes. In this group are the shads and
the alewives or river herrings, the white perch, the striped bass or
rock fish, some {107} of the sturgeons, and the Atlantic salmon, all
of which go back to sea after spawning, and the Pacific salmons (five
species), all of which die after spawning. Of the catadromous fishes
there is a single example in our waters--the common eel. It spends
most of its life in the fresh waters and sometimes becomes permanently
landlocked there, and runs down to the sea to spawn, laying its eggs
off shore in deep water.

Marine Fish

The marine fishes that are found in the coastal waters of the United
States number many hundred species, some of them of great value as
food. Among the most important are cod, haddock, hake, halibut,
Flounder, herring, bluefish, mackeral, weakfish or squeteague, mullet,
snapper, drum, and rock fishes.

[Illustration: _Perea flavescens_--Yellow perch]

[Illustration: _Pomolobus altivalis_--The alewife or river herring]

[Illustration: _Micropterus salmoide