2o8 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



named by Dr. David Starr Jordan, in 1875, from 

 Lake Tippecanoe, Indiana. It was for a long 

 time supposed to exist only in Lake Geneva, 

 Wisconsin, except in the Great Lakes, and an 

 absurd opinion was prevalent that there was an 

 underground communication between that lake and 

 Lake Superior by which the cisco entered it. 

 Soon after Dr. Jordan had discovered it in Tip- 

 pecanoe Lake I found it in several lakes in Wis- 

 consin, as La Belle, Oconomowoc, and Okauchee. 

 The cisco is somewhat smaller than the lake- 

 herring, but otherwise it is about the same. It is 

 almost elliptical in outline, the body being com- 

 pressed. The mouth is rather large, with the 

 jaws more projecting than in the lake white- 

 fishes. The coloration is bluish or greenish on 

 the back, with silvery sides and white belly. The 

 scales are sprinkled with black specks. It is a 

 very pretty fish, is gregarious, swimming in large 

 schools, and feeds on the minute organisms found 

 in lakes of good depth. It remains in deep water 

 most of the year, but resorts to shallower water 

 in the summer, preparatory to spawning. From 

 the last of May to June, when the May-fly 

 appears in vast swarms on the western lakes, the 

 cisco approaches the surface to feed on them. It 



