514 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OP FISHERIES. 



one chub ofif and on for several days, and during that time the chub was never idle, 

 always carrying stones to the heap or driving off other fishes. The other fishes in the 

 vicinity of the nest were black bass, suckers, perch, shiners, and other chubs. The 

 chub avoided or else did not mind the black bass very much. The bass, however, 

 would seldom approach the heap, excepting when a school of shiners would swim over it, 

 when one or more bass would dart at them. That which promised to be a valuable 

 natural history observation was destroyed by some one catching the chub. 



In the previously mentioned Putnam collection were specimens of chubs from 

 Richardson Lake. On October 17, 1900, and October 28, 1904, the writer collected 

 small ones in a minnow trap in Oquossoc Lake. During July, August, and September 

 many were caught, from young only 2 or 3 inches long up to 13 inches long, in Umbagog 

 Lake, Swift and Dead Cambridge Rivers, and Androscoggin and Magalloway Rivers. 

 (See Table III, p. 591.) 



BLACKSPOT CHUB {SemotUus atromaculatus) . 



Although a very commonly distributed fish in Maine, there was no record of its 

 occurrence there until it was found at Freeport, Me., in 1892 and 1893." It was sub- 

 sequently found in many other localities. Only in one or two instances were any dis- 



FlG. s. — Blackspot chub {SemotUus atromaculatus) . 



tinctive common names applied to it. At Green Lake it was called mummy-chub and 

 at the Connecticut Lakes in New Hampshire it was designated as mud-chub. The 

 name blackspot is applied to this fish in allusion to the black spot at the base of the 

 anterior end of the dorsal fin. Its geographical distribution is given in "Fishes of 

 North and Middle America" as Maine and v/estem Massachusetts to southern Missouri, 

 Wyoming, and Canada, chiefly in small brooks, where it is often the largest and most 

 voracious inhabitant. 



It does not attain so large a size as the common chub; in New England it reaches 

 a length of not over 10 inches, so far as is known, but averages considerably less. 



This chub spawns in early summer, at which time the body of the male becomes of 

 a darker hue and the pectoral and ventral fins are often a bright orange color, and there 

 are horny excrescences on the snout and top of head. The nesting and breeding habits 

 are described by Prof. Jacob Reighard in great detail '' and illustrated by reproductions 



a Kendall, W. C, and Smith, Hugh M.: Extension of the recorded range of certain marine and fresh-water fishes of the 

 Atlantic coast of the United States. Bulletin, U. S. Fish Commission, 1894 (1896). p. 17. 

 I> Bulletin, Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXVIII, 1908, pt. a (igio), P- 1111-1136. 



