MILNER FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 51 



together, one female and two males. In the pairs there was always 

 a large one, evidently a gravid female, and a smaller one, the male. 



At this season of the year it is easy to detect the difference in sex, 

 the abdomen of the female being swollen and ronnded, while the males 

 are leaner and angnlar in the abdominal lines. 



I saw by long w^atching that the males were worrying the females. 

 They seemed possessed of strong sexual ardor, and followed the female 

 Avith persistence, keeping close against her and with the head about 

 even with the pectoral fin. Driven by the persistent attention of the 

 male the female arose vertically, he following, and she making a con- 

 vulsive effort to escape, the water being from three to ten feet deep, 

 they threw themselves together above the surface, and the spawn and 

 milt were emitted at the time when, from their position, their vents were 

 approximated. The spasmodic fluttering and effort observed sug- 

 gested a sexual orgasm. At times I saw them moving rapidly beneath 

 the water in the same close contact, and the male with his snout even 

 with the pectoral fin of the female, often turning together with the white 

 of the belly upward as she turned and twisted to escape him. Often as 

 they came out of the water they would fall ajiart in different directions, 

 but the male invariably turned immediately in pursuit, so that I was led 

 to think they were monogamous, as is the fact with their relatives the 

 salmon and the speckled trout. 



November 10. — The white-fish jumping in great numbers toward sun- 

 set. In most instances, when near by, I observed a quantity of eggs, 

 perhaps three hundred or five hundred, emitted at once. The milt of 

 the male did not discolor the water. 



The same actions occurred as before observed, springing vertically 

 from the water with a spasmodic, fluttering effort, the male's head oppo- 

 site the pectoral fin of the female, turning together beneath the water 

 until both abdomens showed upwards. Occasionally three sprang above 

 the surface together. Sometimes the pair fluttered along the surface to- 

 gether for a long distance. 



November 14 and 15. — Went out to the pond at midnight, and again at 

 1 o'clock a. m., and found the white-fish jumping. The fact that they 

 are quiet in the day-time, previous to 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon, indi- 

 cates a parallel habit to that observed by Seth Green, of New York, in 

 the shad, they, as he asserts, spawning principally in the night, though, 

 unlike what was the case with the shad, we had no difficulty in finding 

 spawnersin the forenoon with the seine. 



November 18. — The fishing stopped all along the river. Visited the 

 island. Cold, strong wind from the southwest. Thermometer 20°. No 

 white-fish to be seen in the pond. A few herring coursing around the 

 piling. 



November 19. — Same as yesterday; no white-fish to be seen. Caught 

 some of the herring with the dip-net; found their spawn still hard and 

 small ; their stomachs were full of white-fish spawn. Mr. Clark and I 



