Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 391 



The following are life color notes made on an example 8 inches 

 long, caught at the Weedpatch September 12, 1907 : 



Back light olive mottled with darker; side olivaceous above, 

 more brassy below, the olive of middle of side in 9 broken bars; 

 belly white, dusted with brassy; breast and under part of head 

 finely speckled with dusky ; opercle dark ; side of head brassy with 

 a darker bar downward from eye; dorsal, anal and caudal oliva- 

 ceous yellow, the dorsal and anal spotted with darker ; ventral pale 

 lemon, the tip of the first ray and all of last ray white; pectoral 

 pale lemon. 



45. WARMOUTH 



CH^NOBRYTTUS GULOSUS (Cuvicr & Valenciennes) 



(Plate 24a) 



The Warmouth is found throughout the eastern United States 

 in suitable waters, chiefly west and south of the Alleghenies, from 

 the Great Lakes, Iowa and Kansas, south to Florida and Texas. It 

 is a fish of the warmer, shallower lakes, and the sluggish lowland 

 streams, ponds and bayous. In the small shallow lakes with mud 

 bottom and abundant vegetation, particularly among the spatter- 

 dock, Potamogetons and lily-pads, the Warmouth abounds. We 

 know it from lakes such as those in northern Indiana, Illinois and 

 Iowa, southward in the overflow ponds along the lower Wabash, 

 Ohio and Mississippi, to the bayous and shallow lakes of Missis- 

 sippi, Louisiana and Texas. It is not a common fish in Lake Max- 

 inkuckee ; this lake is too clean and there is not enough mud bottom. 



In seining entirely around the lake between July 4 and July 

 27, 293 hauls were made, in only 3 of which were Warmouth taken. 

 One of these was in the Outlet just above the railroad bridge where 

 6 were gotten. The other two hauls were between the Outlet and 

 the Ice-houses, and only one Warmouth was gotten in each. A few 

 were seined in Culver Inlet. Occasionally one is caught on a hook, 

 but not often. Two or 3 were caught in the summer among the 

 Potamogetons oft" the Gravelpit and 2 or 3 in Outlet Bay ; and each 

 winter a few are taken through the ice at these 2 places, minnows 

 being the bait used. We have a record of only 6 or 8 so taken in 

 the winter of 1899-1900. Although the Warmouth is uncommon 

 in Lake Maxinkuckee it is rather abundant in Lost Lake, into which 

 Lake Maxinkuckee empties. It is particularly abundant in the 

 channel connecting the two lakes where from one to 10 were 

 caught at each haul with a 15-foot seine. It loves to bask in the 

 dense weeds along the edge of the lake, and it can be sometimes 

 raked out in a bunch of tangled vegetation. 



