ON THE IDENTIFICATION FOR LEGAL PURPOSES 
OF MUTILATED OR DRESSED SPECIMENS OF 
WHITEFISH AND HERRING FROM 
THE GREAT LAKES:* 
BY PROF. JACOB REIGHARD OF ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN. 
The statutes of Michigan provide (Act 151, P. A. 1897 See. 
2.) “that it shall be unlawful to market or have in possession any 
whitefish weighing less than two pounds.” 
Acting apparently under this statute, the deputy game and 
fish wardens of Michigan, as I learn from a letter written me 
by the Michigan State Game and Fish Warden under date of 
February 8, 1906, have frequently seized fish which they believed 
to be immature whitefish. On February 8, 1906, the Michigan 
State Game and Fish Warden sent me samples taken from 18 
kegs containing 7,800 pounds of fish seized by his deputies as 
“immature whitefish.” Concerning the samples he wrote: 
“The fish taken from the kegs, the men from whom they 
were seized claim are menominee, while all the old fishermen 
whom we have had examine the same, all the deputies who are 
to-a greater or less extent in the commercial fishing business 
and are educated in the difference between the commercial 
fishes known under the Michigan law, pronounce them to be a 
regular whitefish. What we desire at the present time is expert 
testimony relative to the fish seized from the fishermen, and 
have it in such form that it could be readily used as evidence 
in case a suit was appealed to a higher court, showing the differ- 
ence between a menominee whitefish and a regular whitefish. 
A fisherman who had followed the business all his life, or one of 
our deputies might be well versed and well satisfied in his own 
mind that he could readily tell the difference between a white- 
fish and a menominee after the head was removd; however, if a 
lawyer should ask either of these men to define the difference 
he would be unable to do so by pointing to any feature or con- 
*Contributions from Zoological Laboratory of the University of Michi- 
gan, No. 106. 
47 
