95] STUDY OF SOUTHERN WISCONSIN FISHES— CAHN 95 



1850 Agassiz separated the herrings from the white fish, placing them in 

 the genus Argyrosomus. However, it has been found that the name Argy- 

 rosomus is preoccupied, having been given to a group of French species 

 by de Fougeres in 1834. In 1874 Dybowski gave the generic name of 

 Leucichthys to a group of Siberian species of the genus Argyrosomus 

 Agassiz, creating Leucichthys omul and L. tugun. These become the type, 

 therefore, of the genus Leucichthys to which the American species belong. 

 The first to recognize the true situation was Gill, and he is followed by 

 Jordan and Evermann (1911) who apply the name Leucichthys artedi for 

 the first time. A similar confusion exists regarding the species which occur 

 in Wisconsin, but until the genus is entirely and thoroughly reviewed 

 little can be done to straighten out the matter. Jordan and Evermann 

 (1896) refer to the cisco of Oconomowoc lake as Argyrosomus artedi in 

 their next review of the group (1911) they call it Leucichthys cisco the type 

 being from Lake Tippecanoe, near Warsaw, Indiana. However, they state 

 that it is simply a land-locked artedi, structurally indistinguishable from 

 it. In view of this confusion, the writer is inclined to follow the original 

 work of Jordan and Evermann, and calls the fish Leucichthys artedi, it 

 being understood that the species in question is the common cisco of Ocono- 

 mowoc lake, Waukesha county, Wisconsin. 



Leucichthys artedi is described by Jordan and Evermann as follows: 

 "Head 4£; Depth 4|; eye 4 to 4|; D. 10; A. 12; Scales 8-75 to 90-7; 10 

 rows under base of dorsal; vertebrae about 60. Body elongate, compressed, 

 not elevated. Head compressed, somewhat pointed, rather long, the 

 distance from occiput to tip of snout usually a little less than half the 

 distance from occiput to dorsal fin. Mouth rather large, the maxillary 

 reaching not quite to the middle of the pupil, 3f to 3£ in head; mandible 

 2\ Preorbital bone long and slender; suborbital broad. Gill rakers very 

 long and sledner, 15-17—28 to 34, the longest \\ in eye. Dorsal fin high, 

 its rays rapidly shortening. Bluish black or greenish above; sides silvery, 

 scales with dark specks; fins mostly pale, the lower dusky-tinged. Length 

 12 inches. Great lakes and neighboring waters. An active, voracious fish. 

 Represented in numerous small lakes in Indiana and Wisconsin (Ocono- 

 mowoc, La Belle) by the slightly modified Argyrosomus artedi cisco Jordan." 

 The latter is differentiated from the regular artedi by no other fact than 

 that it is a bit smaller and living in deep water. The only lake in southern 

 Wisconsin which contains ciscos as small as 12 inches when mature is 

 Pine lake. Until the last few years, Oconomowoc lake averaged fish 16 

 inches long or more, and weighing up to 4£ pounds. Beyond the de- 

 scriptions of various species and subspecies of the genus, the ichthyological 

 literature is entirely silent concerning the cisco of the inland lakes, and 

 other than the fact that they "spawn in shallow water in November," 

 notes on the food habits of other species, notably L. birgei Wagner as 



