SHIRAS EXPEDITIONS TO WHITEFISH POINT. 145 



2) was in color like the others taken there. It was of a dark greenisli- 

 oUve above with numerous Ughter spots of the same color due to each 

 scale having a center of a lighter shade. Tlie lower parts were white, 

 and the sides had l^rassy, metallic reflections. 



The suckers in Beaver Lake ar(^ ciuite large. Many of them were 

 about a foot in length, and they moved in large schools in two or three 

 feet of water along the gale zone on the north side (Station 59). The 

 three specimens caught there measured seven to eight inches in length. 

 There was much food in their intestines composed of chironomid larvae^ 

 filamentous algae, diatoms, and undeterminal)le material. Eight 

 specimens of the little common suckers from Lake Superior shoal had 

 beeci eating chironomid larvae, entomostracans, Ulothrix filaments, 

 diatoms, and winged insects, with chironomids tiie principal food in 

 each. Tracy (1910) says that these suckers eat young fish and fish 

 eggs. Kendall and Goldborough (1908) found them feeding on black- 

 fly larvae. 



Common suckers are probably an important source of food for lake 

 trout in Lake Superior (Nash 1913). In Beaver Lake, large pikes were 

 especially common at Station 59 Avhere these suckers predominated. 

 Residents of Vermilion used them little if at all for the table although 

 many were taken with nets. The fish were given to chickens. 



9. Chrosomus enjthrogaster Rafinesque. Red-bellied Dace. — Red- 

 bellied dace were found to be the most abundant of all the species of 

 fish in the marsh lakes south and west of Vermilion, but in those east 

 of Vermilion (Hay-Meadow, Mitten, and Wetherhog Lakes) the species 

 is at least scarce for no examples could be found in the several large col- 

 lections made in them and their outlet streams. Likewise, none were 

 taken from Lake Superior, Shelldrake River, or Shelldrake Lake. A 

 number were found in the few collections made at the north end of 

 Little Lake. These dace preferred the shore regions of the small lakes 

 in which they were found, especially the small deep bays ami beaver 

 channels, and the neighborhood of submerged patches of sweet gale. 



The several hundred specimens cajitured ranged in length from .7 to 

 3 inches. The coloration of a few typical large ones was as follows: 

 olive green above; white below, with two indistinct dark stripes along 

 each side of the back above the two prominent lateral ones separated 

 by an area of yellowish green. These linear markings furnish a ciuir- 

 acter by which the species is readily identified in the Avat(>r. In some 

 of the largest dace, the white lower parts were more or less red, a feature 

 found in breeding males. 



The red-bellied dace were most often found in sciiools, commonly 

 associated with other species, but usually predominating when present. 

 Station 55 (a marsh bay of Beaver Lake) was an ideal place for them. 

 19 



