340 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



long intestine. If dressed immediately after being caught and 

 quickly consigned to the frying pan well rolled in fine meal and 

 seasoned with butter, and browned to a turn, it is a dainty morsel. 

 It is as a bait minnow, however, that this fish is of most value, 

 and it is often seen in the minnow buckets of anglers about the 

 lake. It is fairly good as a deep troller, and is excellent in shal- 

 lower w^ater provided it is kept near the surface. Its tendency 

 is to bear down and become entangled in the weeds if there be 

 any present, where it will pout and sulk. It lives well and is 

 active on the hook when held up. It is a good bait for bass and 

 wall-eyed pike but too big for yellow perch. 



This species can be readily distinguished from any of the other 

 minnows of the lake by an examination of the very long intestine, 

 which is spirally coiled around the air-bladder, a feature peculiar 

 to the genus to which it belongs. 



The males are so greatly modified by the development of 

 tubercles over the body during the breeding season that they hardly 

 look like the same fish; an example 4.75 inches long caught in the 

 Outlet at the railroad bridge June 16, 1901, was so decorated. 

 Several large tubercles adorned the head, and the greater number 

 of scales on the upper part of the body contained each a small 

 tubercle near the center. These tubercles appeared to be com- 

 posed of a horny substance and were each seated in a more or 

 less pit-like depression. 



Head 4.2 in body ; depth 4.4 ; D. 8 ; A. 7 ; scales 7-53-8 ; teeth 4-4 

 or 1, 4-4, 0. Body stoutish, moderately compressed, the ante- 

 dorsal region becoming swollen and prominent in the adult. Snout 

 moderately decurved. Scales deep, rather small and crowded an- 

 teriorly; maxillary not reaching to opposite the front of eye. In- 

 testine very long and wound around the air bladder. Color brown- 

 ish, with a brassy luster above, the scales more or less mottled 

 with dark; a dusky vertical bar behind the opercle; dorsal and 

 anal fins each with a dusky crossbar about halfway up ; the rest of 

 the fin, olivaceous in females, fiery red in the males in the spring, 

 the iris orange in males. Extremely variable. The young very 

 difi'erent in appearance from the old males. Length 6 to 8 inches. 



17. CARP 



CYPRINUS CARPIO Linnaeus 



(Plates 10, 11, and 12) 



During the seining operations of 1899-1900 not a single Carp 

 was taken in the lake and we have no specimens of this species in 



