POPULAR NAMES OF T11E BURBOT. 



name, therefore, should be retained. In Norfolk, England, '-Cony fish" is a name given to the 

 European Burbot, from its habit of skulking hi rat-holes and corners under the banks. 



SIZE. We are, told by .1. H. Forster, in Philosophical Transactions, Ixiii, 1773, p. 149, that 

 the weight of the Burbot in the Hudson's Bay region is from one to eight pounds. According to 

 JVnnant, who derives his information from Forster, the Burbot of the Hudson's Bay regiou reaches 

 a weight of eight pounds. In Alaska, Mr. Dall says that they grow to a very large size, reaching 

 a length of live feet, and weighing as much as sixty pounds. In the Bighorn and Little Bighorn 

 Rivers, Montana, the species reaches an average weight, of less lhan a- pound, and does not exceed 

 eighteen inches in length. Mr. W. Ainswortli, of Cape Vincent, New York, says that the Burbot 

 in the waters of Lake Ontario and Saint Lawrence River average two and a half pounds in 

 weight, occasionally reaching four pounds. The United States National Museum has received 

 from Mr. E. (!. Blackford. of New York, numerous individuals from the Great Lake region, aver- 

 aging certainly not less than five pounds in weight, In the United States National Museum 

 collection the Burbot from the lal.es are, as a rule, larger and plumper than those from rivers. 

 The exceptions are one, from Fort Pierre, Nebraska, and two from the Yukon liiver. These are 

 longer but more slender than the lake Burbot. It seems highly probable that river Burbot may 

 generally be recognized by their slender bodies and small size, which characters we may attribute 

 to the small amount of food obtainable in the rivers, as compared with the supplies found in lakes. 

 The Burbot of the Connecticut River, which furnished the type of Lota comprr.xxa, is short, but really 

 less compressed than some from England, Southern Europe, and from our own lakes. Le Sueur's 

 type of compressed Burbot may have been the starved or emaciated form known to fishermen as 

 " Racer," and it may have been tin ordinary little Burbot of the Connecticut already referred to. 



RELATION TO THE EUROPEAN BURBOT. The American Burbot cannot be distinguished from 

 its European ally by external characters ; in both, the color, the position of the tins, the number of 

 the fin-rays, the structure and arrangement ol the teeth, the situation and size of the eyes, and the 

 relative proportions being substantially alike. There is less difference between the average Ameri- 

 can and European types of Burbot than there is between extremes of the former. Atone time 



I thought that the number of pylorir c<eea, or the, length of the intestines, might be available in 

 classification, but the amount of individual variation is so great in this respect that no division 

 can be based thereon. The pylorie cceca in the European specimens which 1 have studied ranged in 

 number from 20 to 77: in America fiom 36 to 138. There is only one example having the latter 

 number, and that came from the Yukon River. Another individual from the same stream had 102 

 cujca, and in all probability a large series would still further reduce the gap. This variation in the 

 number of caeca is paralleled in other species, notably in the Cod and the Salmon, Salmo solar. 

 \\\ the former 1 have counted 140, 100, 2:"><>, 271, 28t), and 340 in six individuals. In the Salmon 

 Mr. J. K. Thacher records a, variation between 4t and 70.' 



Even in the Craig flounder, Glyptocepkalus riiiitii/laxmiis, which has few coeca, I have counted 



II in one adult and 11 in another. The basis of distinction between the European and American 

 forms of Burbot is solely the smaller number of vertebra; in the former. It may be that an exam- 

 ination of a large series of skeletons will show that the difference is constant, and it is also pos- 

 sible that other good characters will be found which will entitle 1 !he Eiuopcan form to separate 

 specific rank, or such examination may show a European Burbot with as many vertebra:, as one 

 of our American series; in which event il would seem proper lo unite the two under the name of 

 Lota maculosa. 



1 Report of United Si;<i,s I Y l> Cuiniiiission, part a, 1874, \i. 371. 



