FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 25 

and suckerel. It inhabits the Mississippi valley, is not uncommon in the 
Ohio river, and Prof. Cope records it as occasional in the Allegheny. 
The black horse reaches a length of two and one-half feet and a max- 
imum weight of fifteen pounds. It is the best food fish of the sucker 
family. The sexes differ in color; the males have the upper parts jet 
black while the sides are black with coppery luster. The females are 
olivaceous with coppery shadings. The male has minute tubercles on 
the snout in the breeding season in spring. Dr. Kirtland noteda migra- 
tion down stream at the approach of winter. The mouth of this sucker 
is small and the lips are covered with numerous tubercles. 
Genus CATOSTOMUS Le Survr 
31. Catostomus catostomus Forster. 
The Northern Sucker. (Figure 30.) 
The northern sucker has an elongate body, rounded and tapering, with a long and 
rather slender head. The depth of the body is contained about four and one-half 
timesin the length, and equalslength of head. The snout is much longer than in CG 
teres, considerably overhanging the mouth, which is large, with thick coarsely tuber- 
culated lips. D. 10 to 11; A. 7; scales about one hundred in lateral line and about 
twenty-eight between dorsal and ventral fins. 
The northern sucker, long-nosed sucker, or red-sided sucker, as the 
above species is styled, occurs in the great lakes and northwest to 
Alaska in clear cold waters. It is very common in Lake Erie. It grows 
to a length of two feet and is largest and most abundant northward, in 
Alaska reaching a weight of five pounds. As a food fish the long-nosed 
. sucker is little esteemed; but in cold countries the head and roe are 
used in making a palatable soup. 
The males in the breeding season, in spring, are profusely covered 
with tubercles on the head and fins and have a broad rosy band along 
the middle of the body. In the Yukon river, Alaska, Dr. Dall found the 
fish filled with spawn in April. The eggs are of moderate size and yel- 
low in color. Nelson has seen this species seined by Eskimo in brack- 
ish estuaries of streams flowing into Kotzebue Sound. W. J. Fisherhas 
collected specimens on the peninsula of Alaska. 
32. Catostomus teres (Mrrcuitz). 
The Common Sucker. 
The common sucker has a moderately stout body, heavy at theshoulders and tap- 
ering tothe tail. Its greatest depth is contained four and one-half times in length to 
tail, slightly more than lengthofhead. Head conical, flattened ontop. Mouthrather 
large and the lips strongly papillose. Dorsal fin situated in middle of length; 
ventral opposite ; anal far back. Second and third branched rays of dorsal highest, 
two-thirds length of head ; third and fourthrays of anal longest, almost equal to 
length of head. D. 12; A.7; V.9. Scales 64; from dorsal to lateral line and from 
lateral line to ventral 9 or 10. The specimen described, No. 10,548, United States 
National Museum, from Ecorse, Michigan, is fourteen and one-half inches long. 
