FISHES 



OKDEK PLECTOSPOKDYLI. (Carplike 



Fishes.) 



CATOSTOMIDAE. (The Suckers.) 



6. Drum. Lake Carp. Carpiodes thompsoni 

 (Agassiz). Occasionally taken by the gill-net fisher- 

 men in Lake Ontario. It attains a weight of five 

 or six pounds, but is not valued as a food fish. 



7. Northern Sucker. Long-nosed Sucker. Catosto- 

 mus catostomus (Forster). Occasionally taken in 

 Lake Ontario. 



8. Common Sucker. White Sucker. Catostomus 

 commersonii (Lacepede). This is the most abundant 

 of all the Suckers in Ontario waters, and the most 

 generally distributed. It is found in lakes, rivers 

 and even in land-locked marshes and ponds. It spawns 

 in early spring, soon after the ice goes out, and then 

 forces its way up the flooded streams and through 

 the swiftest rapids to reach the spawning beds. At 

 this time vast numbers are speared and netted by 

 fish-hungry people in the rural districts, for at this 

 season its flesh is eatable, though coarse and full of 

 bones. Commercially it is of very little value, but 

 as it affords food for Bass, Lake Trout, and all 

 other predaceous and voracious fishes, it is of 

 considerable economic importance. Its food consists 

 largely of soft-bodied insects and the smaller crus- 

 taceans, and it will readily take worm bait. The 

 largest I have ever seen would weigh from three to 



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