Evening star., 1921-05-01
Wide Variety of Fish
In Waters About District

NOR herring. Classified among the
earn and minnows are golden loe'
tench. golden ore and gudseon. Men
haden are called by that name ana are
also known as "bughsh ana aie-
wife" Among the garfish are the
silver gar, saltwater gar. needlehsh
and billish. The gars are regular
spring visitors and go as high up the
river as the Aqueduct bridge. Tney
consider that far enough from the
sea and are not often caught ABOVE
the bridge.
strawberry bass. strawberry perch.
crappie, calico bass and speckled perch
Dream and redbreaSt: the rock perch,
tobacco box, long-eared sunnsh ana
bass. red-eyed perch. google eye. war
mouth. blue spotted sunnsh ana little
sunfish. Some of the local names for
the large mouth black bass are chub.
Oswego bass. green bass. trout, jump
er and welshman and the sea bass is
called striped bass. rocknsh ana rock
Some of the perches are called yeiiow
perch, yellow Ned. ringed perch. white
perch, silver perch. log perch and hog
molly. and the darters are the shield
ed darted. Johnny darter ana tesse-
lated darter.
The pigfish seems also to be called
the hogfsh and the red-mouthed
grunt. There are two species OF drum
H.,
and the other the kingfish. whiting or
seamink. The sculpin is variously
called the miller's thumb, blob. muf-
ie-jaw and bull head. There are two
soles, the American sole and the hog
choker. found in the Eastern branch.
common in spring at the fishing shores
below Washington.
habit the waters of the District and
the neighborhood of Washington, was
prepared in 1895 by Hugh NJ Smith
and Barton A. Bean of the United
States fish commission. In a bulletin
issued in that year. and from which
the foregoing fish names were taken
the authors say that "the District
FISH fauna as at present known GS9s)
comprises eighty-one species belong
ing to sixty-two genera and thirty
one families" They point out that the
local fauna has been enriched by the
introduction OF non-indigenous spe-
cies, some Of which are now among
the best food and game fishes of the
region. The acclimatized species num-
Der about ten and are mostly men,
bers of the bass family. About thirty
SPECIES of the local fish fauna are Of
economic Importance. being principal
ly shad, hickory shad. alewives, strip
cd bass. better known locally as rock
fish or rock: white pac.h. tho black
basses. yellow perch, sturgeon, ocls.
suckers. carp and catfish.
In this bulletin it is said that an
interesting feature of the fish fauna
OF the District is the regular or occa-
sional appearance in our waters of
typical saltwater nsh, usually Of
served in dry weather when there is
an upstream extension of the zone of
hrackish water. which is normally
about forty miles below Washington.
Requiem sharks occasionally have
been observed between Fort WASH
ington and Alexandria, and one Ave
feet long, was taken at Glymont in
1894. 1t is remarked that a number
of sharks have been caught at ely
mont in sturgeon nets. In the early
eighties there was famous fisher
man whose name is So .iown in the
bulletin as Col. Marshall Mcdonald.
He is reported as having caught
many specimens of fish at Gunston
Masons Neck. The bulletin credits
him with catching a pigfish, which is
a straggler from salt water; a king
fish, whiting or sea mink, an angel
fish. sometimes called moonish and
spade fish; a gobie and a toadfis.t,
sometimes called scorpion. and the
oyster nsh. Another fish set down
to the credit of Col. Mcdonald &,
soa robin. also called the .urI--'