PAPERS ON ZOOLOGY 135 



were made in Flat Branch, near Humboldt, Illinois. This 

 is a tributary of the Kaskaskia River and hence is in the 

 Mississippi drainage. 



Xotes on each of the twelve species of fish npon which 

 data conceruinji- life-histories have been obtained through 

 field studies' in the region about Charleston and other 

 parts of Coles County, Illinois, are here given. The distri- 

 bution and relative abundance of these species in this 

 region are treated by the writer in his paper on the Distri- 

 bution of the Fish in the streams about Charleston, Illi- 

 nois (Hankinson '13). 



Erimi/zon succtta ohlougus (Mitchell), Chub Sucker. 



On April 10, ^910, in Cossel Creek near Mound Ceme- 

 tery, two large Chub Suckers with tuberculate snouts were 

 seen pulling at the stones of a piece of broad, gravelly 

 shoal. At one time these two fishes, which were in all 

 probability males, were seen to place themselves against 

 the sides of one of the several smaller Chub Suckers, prob- 

 ably females, that were associated with them. The act was 

 very similar to the spawning act of the Common Sucker. 



Little appears to be known of the breeding of the Chub 

 Sucker. It evidently spawns early in Illinois, in March 

 and April according to Forbes and Richardson ( '09. p. 82), 

 wlio found fish ready to spawn at that time. Richardson 

 ('13. p. 410) found young more than an inch long in early 

 June at Havana. Meek and Hilderbrand ( '10, p. 252) say 

 that the Chub Sucker spawns in April. It evidently 

 breeds in streams, tip which it may rtm in spring (Fowler 

 '06, p. 162; Wright and Allen '13, 'table). 



Catostomiis couimersonii (Lacepede), Common Sucker. 



In the early spring this species rtms up small streams 

 for spawning ptirposes, chiefly at night. In Kickapoo 

 Creek, about three miles west of Charleston, I observed the 

 spawning activities of this species on March 31, 1910. 

 There were about twenty of these suckers poising over 

 a clean gravelly bottom just above riffles near a deep 

 pool I Fig. 2 ) . Each fish was about ten inches long 

 and very dark colored, almost black, dorsally: and the 

 sides were jet black. They were very different in 

 appearance from other Common Suckers associated with 

 them on this shoal. These were probably all or mostly 

 females and had the ordinary coloration of the species. 



