28 CHECK LIST OF THE 



Gexus CASTOSTOMUS. (Fine-Scaled Suckers.) 



Body elongate, fusiform, rounded, tapering anteriorly and posteriorly ; 

 head long, with pointed snout ; eye small, placed high ; suborbital bones 

 narrow; fontanel present, large; mouth rather large, inferior, upper lip 

 thick, protractile, papillose, lower lip greatly developed, with a broad free 

 margin, usually deeply incised behind, so that it forms two lobes, which 

 are often more or less separated ; mandible horizontal, short ; opercles 

 moderate; pharyngeal bones moderate, their teeth shortish, vertically 

 compressed, rapidly diminishing in size upward ; scales comparatively 

 small ; typically much smaller and crowded anteriorly ; lateral line well 

 developed, straightish ; dorsal nearly median, with from nine to fourteen 

 rays; anal fin short and high, with seven developed rays; ventrals inserted 

 under the middle or posterior part of dorsal, with nine to ten rays; caudal 

 fin forked, the lobes nearly equal. In males the fins are higher, and the 

 anal is swollen and tuberculate in the spring. Air bladder with two cham- 

 bers, the posterior large. Vertebra? forty-five to forty-seven. 



Subgenus CATOSTOMUS. 



(i8) Northern Sucker. Long-nosed Sucker. 



(Catostomus catostomus.) 



Body elongate, round and tapering. Head long and slender, depressed 

 and flattened above, broad at the base, but tapering into a long snout 

 which overhangs the large mouth ; lips thick, coarsely tuberculate, the 

 upper lip narrow, with two or three, sometimes four, rows of papillte ; 

 lower lip deeply incised. Eye small; scales very small, much crowded 

 anteriorly. 



D., lo or II ; A., 7 or 8 ; V., 10. 



Colour above greyish brown, becoming white below. Males in spring 

 with the head profusely tuberculate and the side with a broad rosy band. 

 In many specimens this band is persistent all through the season. 



This Sucker has a very wide range, being found from the St. Law- 

 rence River all through the Great Lake region to the extreme north, and 

 is abundant in the streams about Hudson's Bay. It spawns in early 

 spring. 



As a food lish it is not highly esteemed. When fully grown it reaches 

 a weight of four or five pounds. 



Sunr.HNus DECACTVLUS. 



(19) Common Sucker. White Sucker. 



(Catostomus commersonii.) 



Body moderately stout, heavy at the shoulders and tapering to the 

 tail. Head conical, flattish above; snout rather prominent, scarcely over- 



