88 FISHES OF THE CONNECTICUT LAKES. 
12. Rounp Wartrertsn. Coregonus quadrilateralis Richardson. 
Plate VI. 
Head 4.67 in length without caudal; depth 4.67; eye 4.60 in head; snout 3.53; 
maxillary bone 5.11; dorsal 11; anal 11; scales 10-83-8. 
Head sharp, upper profile strongly curved downward to snout; snout beak- 
like, sharp, compressed, projecting; mouth small; distance from tip of snout to 
posterior extremity of maxillary 4.60 in head; maxillary not reaching front of 
eye, mandible 2.87; lower jaw included; eye large; interorbital moderate, 3.83 
in head; body fusiform, caudal peduncle rather slender; pectoral moderately 
long, pointed, 1.31 in head; dorsal moderate, first rays longest; 1.45 in head, 
when depressed scarcely reaching tips of the last ray; margin straight when 
spread, base 2.09 in head; anal falcate, first rays longest, 1.76 in head, tip 
when depressed extending considerably beyond tip of last rays, base 2.42 in 
head; caudal forked. 
Top of head and back grayish olive; sides and belly silvery and white; 
caudal dusky, other fins pale; pectoral tipped with dusky. Description from a 
male specimen 10.41 inches long from northern Maine, November, 1901, Lower 
fins of males reddish in life during breeding season, 
In this region distinguished from all other fishes but the smelt and salmon 
family by the presence of the fatty or adipose fin on upper part of tail; from 
all other members of the salmon family except other whitefishes by its plain 
coloration; from other whitefishes by its small mouth and “ bill”-like snout 
and fusiform body; from the smelt by its small toothless mouth. 
“ Billfish ” seems to be a local name for this fish restricted to First 
Connecticut Lake, applied because of its compressed snout, which gives 
it a beak or “ bill ”-like appearance. It is one of the whitefishes and 
is known in the books as “ round whitefish ” in allusion to its spindle 
or fusiform shape in contradistinction to the compressed or later- 
ally flattened form of the other species. In Maine it is called the 
“ chiven ” or “ chivy,” a corruption and transappellation of chevaine, 
the French name for the chub. In some parts of New York it is 
called the “ frost fish,” and “ menominee ” is an aboriginal name. It 
seldom attains a weight of much over a pound and the average 
weight is coneegena less. 
The round whitefish: is w idely distributed in northern regions, 
ranging from New Brunswick through New Hampshire, northern 
Vermont, and the Great Lakes, northward to Labrador and north- 
westward to Alaska. It was described by Prescott in 1851 from Lake 
Winnepesaukee, under the name Coregonus Nov-Anglia, “ shad- 
waiter,” or “ New England whitefish.” It doubtless occurs in other 
New Hampshire waters. It has been reported from First Connecticut 
Lake under the name of “ billfish.” In the New Hampshire Fish and 
Game Report for 1892, page 90, it is recorded from Connecticut 
Lakes as follows: “They [Connecticut Lakes] are well stocked with 
minnows and small whitefish (Coregonus quadrilateralis), known 
locally as ‘ billfish.’” Its occurrence in the other Connecticut Lakes 
could not be learned of, though there is a reliable report of its capture 
this year in Main Inlet by hook and line at the mouth of Coon Brook. 
