36 American Fisheries Society 



duced — one comparable with the very valuable work on 

 the Fishes of Illinois. 



Few states have a fish fauna so interesting and ex- 

 tensive and of such economic value as that of Michigan, 

 and which is so deserving of scientific consideration. Al- 

 ready much work of this kind has been done in the state 

 and its adjoining Great Lake waters, chiefly by the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, the Michigan Fish Commission, the 

 State Geological and Biological Survey, and the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries, but the published results of fish 

 work in the state are considerably scattered, and much 

 valuable material is in publications not readily available. 

 The paper by Ellis L. Michael (1904), entitled "Cata- 

 logue of Michigan Fish,"* represents the only productive 

 effort to compile data on Michigan fish with which the 

 writer is familiar. Mr. Michael very successfully and 

 carefully gathered and sifted the data on the occurrence 

 and distribution of the species of fish in Michigan, but 

 since the time of appearance of this paper, many data 

 have been obtained and published, based chiefly on work 

 by the University of Michigan expeditions, work at the 

 Biological Station at Douglas Lake, and work by the 

 Michigan Fish Commission. It is undoubtedly time for 

 an inventory of facts relating to Michigan fish, but before 

 a publication on the fish of the state is written, more 

 field work should be done and this in some of the many 

 parts of the state having fish life that have not been 

 scientifically examined. The writer has been looking up 

 these places and confining his field work almost entirely 

 to them. The smaller forms are given more attention 

 than the larger ones for the latter are mostly food and 

 game fish and are pretty well known. 



Some fifty localities in Michigan have been visited by 

 the author since May, 1915, when this general survey of 

 the fish of the state began. These localities are in six- 

 teen counties and include nineteen stream systems, nine 

 inland lakes, three lakes connected with Great Lakes, and 

 the shallow water along shore of Lake St. Clair, St. Clair 



*Sixteenth Report of the State Board of Fish Commissioners. 



