THE WHITEFISHES OF NORTH AMERICA. 299 



peduncle short and deep. From typical C. clupeiformis this specimen 

 differs chiefly in the more numerous gillrakers, the somewhat heavier 

 head, the larger mouth, longer maxillary, longer mandible, sharper 

 snout, slightly projecting lower jaw, and the larger scales. In all of 

 these respects the variations from clupeiformis are corresponding 

 approximations to the characters possessed by the lake herring. 



While we are not at all inclined to admit the occurrence in nature of 

 hybrids among fishes, we are disposed to regard this specimen as a 

 hybrid betweeu the true whitelish (G. clupeiformis) and the lake her- 

 ring (A. artedi). We are informed by Dr. Bean, until recently in charge 

 of the Fish-cultural Division of the United States Fish Commission, 

 that it has been a common practice among fish-culturists at the stations 

 about the Great Lakes to fertilize the eggs of the true whitefish (G. 

 clupeiformis) with the milt from the lake herring (A. artedi), and that 

 this hybridizing has been carried on more or less for several years. 1 

 Plants of these hybrids have been made in various places, but chiefly 

 in Lake Erie; and it is not at all unlikely that this specimen and all 

 those which the Lake Erie fisherman occasionally get and which they 

 call " mongrel whitefish " are really hybrids between the true whitefish 

 and the lake herring. The number of such hybrids can not be great, 

 however. During the entire season's work of the various Fish Com- 

 mission parties on the different Great Lakes, only the one specimen 

 which we have described was obtained. Mr. Butter informs us that 

 the fisherman say they occasionally get a " mongrel whitefish,"' but 

 this, and possibly one other, are the only ones he saw. 



Distribution and abundance. — The common whitefish is one of the most 

 abundant species of whitefishes. It is found throughout the Great 

 Lakes region from Lake Champlain to Lake Superior and Lake Win- 

 nipeg. We have examined specimens from Lake Champlain, Otsego 

 Lake, each of the Great Lakes, and from Lake Winnipeg. We have 

 seen no specimens from Lake Memphremagog or elsewhere east of 

 Lake Champlain. Of the three species known to occur in Lake Cham- 

 plain this is the rarest. The form described from Otsego Lake, N. Y., 

 is a landlocked variety, scarcely worthy of recognition; the National 

 Museum contains three specimens from this lake. In lakes Erie, 

 Huron, Michigan, and Superior the whitefish is abundant, but is now 

 most so in Lake Michigan. It occurs in diminished numbers west and 

 north of Lake Superior, but we have few authentic records to establish 

 the fact. It is reported commercially from Lake of the Woods, Lake 

 Winnipeg, and the northwest Territories, but all the specimens of so- 

 called whitefish which we have seen from the first-named lake belong 

 to a very different species — the Musquaw Biver whitefish (C. labra- 



'This is done, however, only as a last resort, when eggs of the whitefish can he 

 saved which would otherwise he lost on account of an insufficient number of 

 spawning male whitefish on hand at the collecting station. 



