The Rich Hill tribune. (Rich Hill, Mo.) 1903-1911, 1906-11-15
OUR FISH MISNAMED.
FIRST CoMERs TO AMERICA
KNEW BUT FEW NAMES.
Species Found in Our Waters Given
the Applications Of Fishes
Native to Foreign
Streams.
seC ANT s1.2e
WAIST PATTERN SALE

The fishes Of the United States are
oddly misnamed. according to DR.. Theo.
d0re Gil, cooperative worker with the
bureau Of fisheries, reports the New
YORK Sun. Dr. Gin says;
The known fishes OF England ars
few, and me early col0nists knew few
even OF them. The were
astouuded az the abundance Of the
nshss about their new home. To these
numerous fishes they transferred namea
OF English species With which they
were more or less familiar. On account
OF the great number OF species common
10 the two countries, those who came
from old England to New England
we're not very far astray. but as they
or their successors wandered farther
and farther they made many mistakes.
A few examples win illustrate:
Among the most common OF thu
English fishes are the codperch. bass
aud trout The immigrants to Massa-
chuscits applied these names TO fishes
81 The same genera as the originals. but
mostly OF different species. Perch has
been used IN this country as a name
for very different sorts OF fishes. In
ENGLAND the name Is specifically ap-
piled TO a well-known water Ash. The
immigrants 20 New England found a
FISH almost uudistingulshable from Il.
and gave Il the same name. Others
gave Il 10 fishes having no real re-
semblance. The so-called white perrh
OF the Atlantic coast. is In reality
bass. The silver perch. the gray perch
the white perch OF the Ohio river. the
red perch and the blue perch are all
misnamed.
Bass is applied 20 many different
species-a score or more. In England
Il Ia the proper name Of a marine ash
common only along the southern coast.
A related species. though OF a diHerept
genus. was found by the new settlers OF
MASSACHUSETTS and New York. ana
quite properly called bass or striped
bass. There are by the way, several
other species IN this country entitled
10 the name. but which. oddly enough
have been given the names OF Other
hsh. as, for instance. The white perch
An others are quite remote from the
true bass-even the sp-eelleA black
BASES.
Trout Is another VI The Epsllsh
names yarlously misapplied. In the
old country Il is given 10 a singIs spe.
eiea generally distributed through he
Island IN clear, cold streams. The
Pilgrims found In similar streams IN
Massachusetts a FISH somewhat ike n
and called 1t by the same name. Al.
though II lzaak Walton had bean
among them he might have told them
was not a trout, but a char. Others
found N Maine l~andlocked salmon. ana
IN various large lakes another eood
sized salmonid, and applied 10 than
also the name OF trout. S%ettleFs in
The Voutless southern states. bound
10 give he name 10 some fish, gave
u ~ the KIDD generally known A
black bass. Along the southern eoast.
100, the name trout, % sea trout, was
given 10 entirely different kinds Of
fishes. When the Americans reached
the California coast they found certain
fishes Of a peculiar family, not AZ All
like trout In shape or fms. but spotted. |
and these they also called trout. attn
another heh, found IN the ella river, 4
slender, large mouthed eyprinid, was
called trout By early explorers, ana
gtill bears the name.
But this IS not an. or the worst.
These odd names are not only widely
scattered; they accumulate. Cod and
inout are given 20 the same hsh along
the Facilo coast Another hsh IL
Jailed rock cod about Puget SQUAD.
and rock trout aud sea trout at san
Francisco"