70 FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


were taken in Lake Erie than in all the other lakes put together, a total 
of over nineteen million pounds having been caught there out of a total 
of less than twenty-six million pounds. 
Size.—The average length of this species is about one foot, and the 
weight nine to twelve ounces, but examples measuring nineteen inches 
in length and weighing two pounds have been recorded. 
Habits.—The lake herring frequents moderately shoal waters and oc- 
curs in enormous schools, as we may judge from the quantity captured 
in Lake Erie. Its food consists of insects and crustaceans. During 
the spawning season of the whitefish, however, it feeds exclusively upon 
the eggs of this species and proves very destructive. The lake herring 
will take the hook, and has been caught with live minnows. Spawning 
takes place about the end of November, in shoal waters. 
Uses and Capture.—As a food fish this species is inferior to the white- 
fish, but it is in great demand, over an extensive area of the country, 
and is shipped in the fresh condition many hundreds of miles east and 
west. I have elsewhere referred to the enormous number taken in 1885 
in Lake Erie. These are caught chiefly in pound and gill nets. The 
catch in 1885 amounted to more than one-third of the entire quantity 
of fishes taken in this lake. There is no apparent dimunition in the 
number of these fishes, and their artificial propagation has not been 
practiced. : 
87. Coregonus tullibee Ricaarpson. 
The Tullibee. (Figure 49.) 
The body of the tullibee is very short, deep and compressed ; its greatest height 
about one-third of the length without caudal. The head is pointed, as in the ‘* black 
fin ;’ the mouth large, with the lower jaw scarcely longer than the upper. The 
maxilla extends to below the middle of the eye. The eye equals the snout in 
length and is two-ninths length of the head. Scales much larger on front part of the 
body than on the caudal peduncle. The gill rakers are long, slender and numerous, 
about thirty below the angle on the first arch. D. 11; A. 11; scales in the lateral 
line seventy-four, eight rows above and seven below lateral line. The upper parts 
are bluish ; sides white and minutely dotted. 
Names.—'This species is usually called the tullibee, but in Lakes 
Erie and Michigan it is sometimes styled the ‘mongrel whitefish” on 
the supposition that it is a cross between the common whitefish and the 
lake herring. 
Distribution.—The tullibee has been taken recently in Lake Michi- 
gan, and Dr. E. Sterling had a specimen from Lake Erie. Itis found oc- 
casionally in other of the Great Lakes and extends northward into 
British America, but is comparatively little known to the fishermen and 
is very rare in collections. 
Size.—This fish grows to a length of eighteen inches, but the few ex- 
amples seen by me were about one foot long. Its scarcity makes it un- 
important as a food fish in our waters; but in some parts of Canada it 
