10 CHECK LIST OF THE 



(2) Brook Lamprey. 



(Lampetra wilder!.) 



The high dorsal fin is divided into two parts by a deep notch. Several 

 of the teeth on the side of the buccal disk are bicuspid and the rest simple. 

 The mandibulary plate is nearly straight and has eight or ten cusps of 

 nearly equal size. There are sixty-seven muscular impressions from gills 

 to vent. In the spring a prominent anal papilla is present. The head is 

 larger than the space occupied by the gill openings. Eyes large. Mouth 

 moderately small. Lips conspicuously fringed with papillae. The teeth 

 change considerably with age ; young specimens have no median cusp on 

 the maxillary plate. 



Colour, bluish black above ; lower parts silvery. Length about eight 

 inches. 



This Lamprey ranges through the Great Lakes region, ascending 

 small streams in the spring to spawn. It clings to stones and clods of 

 earth while depositing its ova, and is believed by many persons to die 

 after spawning. 



Like the rest of the family, it is parasitic on other fish. 



I am not positive as to the occurrence of this species in our waters, 

 though I have often taken a small Lamprey in the northern and western 

 streams of Ontario and in the rivers of Manitoba which I believe to be the 

 Brook Lamprey. 



Class PISCES. (The Fishes.) 



The Fishes may be defined as cold-blooded vertebrates adapted for 

 life in the water, breathing by means of gills which are attached to bony 

 or cartilaginous gill arches ; the gills persistent throughout life ; having 

 the skull well developed and provided with a lower jaw ; the limbs present 

 and developed as fins, rarely wanting through atrophy ; shoulder girdle 

 present, furcula shaped, curved forward below ; pelvic bones present ; 

 exoskeleton developed as scales, bony plates, or horny appendages or 

 sometimes entirely wanting, and with the median line of body with one or 

 more fins composed of cartilaginous rays connected by membrane. 



Subclass TELEOSTOMI. (True Fishes ) 



Skeleton usually bony, sometimes cartilaginous. Skull with sutures ; 

 membrane bones (opercle, preopercle, etc.) present; gill openings a single 

 slit on each side ; gills with their outer edges free, their bases attached to 

 bony arches, normally four pairs of these, the fifth pair being typically 

 modified into tooth-bearing lower pharyngeals ; median and paired fins 

 developed, the latter with distinct rays. Ova small. Heart developed, 

 divided into an auricle, ventricle and arterial bulb. Lungs imperfectly 

 developed or modified to form a swim bladder or entirely absent. 



