316 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



individuals weighing 7^ pounds had recently been taken. The species was called 

 " Bluefin " and Whitefish. 



The fish-eating habit of the Whitefish was fully verified in the aquarium on 

 examples obtained in Canandaigua Lake in November, 1896, by Mr. Annin. Know- 

 ing that the species usually subsists on small mollusks and crustaceans, efforts were 

 made to provide the fish with P/iysa and Gaminants ; but this became difficult in 

 winter, and an experiment was made with small Killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus and 

 majali$\ which proved satisfactory during the cold months. In summer, however, 

 it was found necessary to return to the use of Gammarus. The Whitefish at first 

 took the Killifish without any eagerness, but they soon learned to chase their prey 

 and take it much as trout do. 



SMELT. 



52. Smelt of New York Lakes (Argyrosomus osmcriformis H. M. Smith). 



Coregonus osmeriformis SMITH, Bull. U. S. F. C., XIV, 2, pi. i, fig. 2, 1895, Lakes Seneca 



and Skaneateles, New York. 

 Coregonus hoyi BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V, 658, 1883 ; GOODE, Fish and Fish. Ind. 



U. S., I, pi. 197 B, 1884; not Coregonus hoyi (.ill. 

 Argyrosomus osmeriformis JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., I, 468, 1896. 



Body elongate, moderately compressed, slender ; head less compressed than 

 body, its greatest width equaling one-half of distance from tip of lower jaw to nape ; 

 the lower jaw projecting considerably even when the mouth is closed ; mouth large, 

 the maxillary reaching to the vertical through the anterior margin of the pupil ; 

 preorbital bone long and slender, more than one-third as long as the head ; supra- 

 orbital as long as the eye, four times as long as broad. 



The greatest height of the body is considerably less than the length of head, 

 and is contained five times in the total length without caudal. The greatest width 

 of the body is less than one-half its greatest height. The least height of caudal 

 peduncle equals the length of the orbit and about one-third of the greatest height 

 of the body. Scales small, nine in an oblique series from the dorsal origin to the 



