Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 351 



Our collection contains 111 specimens, ranging from 1.12 to 

 2.5 inches in length, 34 of which were obtained in Lake Maxin- 

 kuckee, 75 in Lost Lake, 1 in Aubeenaubee Creek and 1 in Culver 

 Inlet. 



Head 4 in length ; depth 4 ; eye 3 in head ; snout equal to eye ; 

 D. 8 ; A. 8 ; scales 5-36-3, the lateral line extending about half the 

 length of the body; teeth 4-4 (sometimes 2, 4-4, 2) often crenate. 

 Body moderately stout, the back somewhat elevated; head rather 

 pointed, the muzzle acuminate ; mouth rather oblique, lower jaw 

 projecting; upper lip opposite upper rim of pupil; maxillary ex- 

 tending to opposite front rim of orbit; thirteen scales in front of 

 dorsal. 



Color : Back golden olivaceous ; top of head black, snout paler, 

 yellowish ; middle of side with a broad, black, zigzag line beginning 

 often as a black spot at base of caudal and running along middle 

 of side through eye and around snout ; tip of lower jaw black ; lower 

 half of side and under parts silvery. In mature examples there is 

 a steel-blue wash along lateral line, and the whole body has a pale 

 golden tinge ; a small dark spot on back at origin of dorsal, 



24. STRAW-COLORED MINNOW 



NOTROPIS BLENNIUS (Giraid) 



(Plate 15) 



The Straw-colored Minnow is generally abundant in small 

 streams from Ohio and Michigan to Tennessee, Dakota and Kansas, 

 and southward to Texas. At Lake Maxinkuckee it is very abund- 

 ant. During the seining operations of 1899-1900, 499 examples or 

 more were taken. Throughout the summer individuals of this 

 species seem to be pretty well distributed in the lake from the 

 shore to some distance out; with the coming of winter, however, 

 they crowd together and are frequently seen in immense schools 

 along the shore, sometimes alone, and sometimes associated with 

 skipjacks and blunt-nosed minnows. A sudden cooling of the 

 water in autumn appears to benumb them and other small fishes 

 and they are frequently found washed upon shore where they 

 perish. This particularly happens if there is a storm with high 

 waves about the time of a rapid lowering of water temperature. 

 When the first skirt of ice is formed along shore they are some- 

 times found frozen on top of the ice as if they had jumped up 

 there to escape some larger fish, or had been blown there in the 

 spray. 



The Straw-colored Minnow is a rather delicate fish and cannot 



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