218 WHITMAN AND EYCLESHYMER. [VoL. XII. 
the same locality during the week preceding Dr. Dean’s visit 
in the spring of 1895. On the 12th day of May, between 4.00 
and 5.30 A.M., a number of broods of larvae were caught, the 
largest of which measured 25 mm. These must have been at 
least 35 days old, as a glance at our table, p. 327, will show. 
These facts show beyond question that eggs were laid during 
the first days of April. 
«At the height of a ‘run’ as many as a half-dozen nests, as 
fishermen stated, were found to occur within the space of a few 
square yards.” This needs confirmation. We have never found 
the nests in such close proximity, — never more than four or 
five in a single bay, and usually rods apart. The small bays 
along the shore of Pewaukee Lake generally furnish ground for 
but one, or at most two or three nests. 
«Immediately before spawning, z¢ zs sazd that the fish divide 
themselves into parties, each comprising a female and several 
males, and that they then circle about nearer and nearer the 
shallows.” True to the extent that the female may be con- 
tended for by two or more males. They are on the ‘“shallows”’ 
to begin with, and hence do not need to “circle about”’ to get 
nearer to them. 
To say that “the fish divide themselves into parties’’ com- 
ports well with a fisherman’s yarn, and shows how useful such 
yarn may be in darning up gaps in observation. 
“The mode of building a nest is in some ways doubtful ; 
fishermen state that the spawning party prepares it by constant 
circlings before the time of spawning, and this view seems 
entirely corroborated by a careful examination of the newly 
made nest; the soft weeds and rootlets appear bent and 
brushed aside in a way that gives it somewhat the appearance 
of a crudely finished bird’s nest.” 
That the nest is built, and built with considerable care in 
many cases, is evident enough. ‘The mode of building,” 
however, is, indeed, doubtful; no less doubtful at the end 
than at the beginning of the fisherman’s tale. 
«“ And it seems evident that nests are prepared sometimes 
well in advance of spawning, for several were noted by the 
writer which were occupied by the fish for a number of days 
