54 Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting 
seized as immature whitefish were returned to the parties from 
whom they were taken. 
In addition to the whitefish and menominees I have exam- 
ined in the round eleven Great Lake herring (Argyrosomus 
artedi), seven from Saginaw Bay and four from Lake Erie, and 
one blackfin (Argyrosomus nigripinnis), presumably from Lake 
Huron. ‘The blackfin and the Saginaw Bay herring are dis- 
tinguishable from the whitefish by the scale characters, position 
of growth center, and striation of caudal area. The Lake Erie 
herring were of unusual size, between three and four pounds 
weight and I am unable to separate them from the whitefish. 
In conclusion it may be said that the method employed served 
its immediate purpose of separating the Lake Huron whitefish 
and menominees, apparently better than any other method avail- 
able. Any. general statement passed on the data at hand must, 
however, be regarded tentative. Before the method can be gener- 
ally employed for separating these two species it is necessary to 
examine a much larger number of fish than were at my disposal. 
Perhaps a thousand fish from different localities and of differ- 
ent sizes and selected at random from a much larger number 
should be examined. If they are found to agree with those al- 
ready examined the method may thereafter be used with con- 
fidence for separating the whitefish and menominees. 
It is probable that, the method could be extended to the 
other species of whitefish and herring in the Great Lakes, but the 
material at my command is not sufficient to warrant any final 
statement on that point. If the method can be extended to other 
fishes it may be made of service not only in enabling deter- 
mination of imperfect specimens for legal purposes, but in mak- 
ing it possible to identify by the scales the partly digested fish 
found in the stomachs of other animals. It is often impossible 
to identify these partly digested fish by the methods now in use. 
To identify them with certainty would add materially to our 
knowledge of the food habits of our fishes. Even sould the 
method not prove to have wide application it may still be of 
value in the identification of fish remains from a restricted 
locality. It is to be hoped that some one will take up this sug- 
gestion and make an extended microscopical study of the scales 
of the fishes in some one locality. 
