46 AMERICAN FISHES. 



ABDOMINAL 



MALACOPTERYGII. SALMONID^E. 



LE SUEUR'S HERRING SALMON. 



Coregonus Artedi ; Le Sueur. 



THIS fish is the Herring of Lake Erie and the Niagara River. It 

 is not of much value as an article of food, and of next to none as a fish 

 of sport. The meat is white and delicate enough, but rather dry and 

 tasteless. 



Richardson thus alludes to it in his fine work, so often quoted, on the 

 Northern fishes of America : 



" This species having been taken in Lake Erie and the Niagara 

 River, requires to be noticed in this work. M. Le Sueur says that it 

 is locally known by the name of Herring Salmon, and is considered to 

 be very delicate food. As it did not fall under our notice, we shall 

 transcribe the description given of it by its discoverer. 



" Description quoted from M. Le Sueur. Body subfusiform, a little 

 elevated at the back ; head small, having an osseous radiated plate 

 which is covered by the skin ; snout pointed. In form this species 

 approaches the Scombri ; a section of it is oval. Head small and nar- 

 row ; snout short, terminated by small intermaxillaries ; maxillaries 

 wide, sharp-edged as in the Herring, edges entire ; mandibles carinate, 

 producing inwardly a triangular pedunculate expansion ; very small 

 conical teeth inserted in the skin of the lips at the extremity of the 

 jaws : these teeth were sufficiently manifest in a small individual, but 

 not visible in a larger one, a female, which came under my observa- 

 tion. Rays in the osseous plate of the head tubular, and open at the 

 exterior, some tending backwards, and others towards the end of the 

 snout. A faint carinate line divides the top of the head in the dried 

 specimen. Lateral line straight and near the middle ; nostrils double, 

 close to the end of the snout and articulation of the maxillaries ; scales 

 round, approximated, easily falling off; the base of the tail is covered 

 with them. Color ash blue at the back, paler and silvery on the rest 

 of the body, with yellow tints on the tail, head and dorsal ; iris whitish, 



