Aiton’s Encyclopedia
A Practical Reference Library in Five Volumes — keyed from the public-domain original
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Suckers

a family of fresh water fishes, chiefly American. The mouth is prolonged, rather for nibbling and sucking than for seizing. The flesh is rather tasteless and is full of bones. Suckers, buffalo fish, and redhorse are closely allied. To say of one that he is a "sucker" is to intimate that he takes bait easily and is caught too readily--too easily deceived.

Volume V · Aiton’s Encyclopedia