42 PRELIMINARY REPORT 



caudal and anal. Upper parts of the body dark brown in color; 

 lower parts light. Head contained 8^ times in the length. Length 

 4 feet. 



Very few data have been collected concerning the eel in 

 Minnesota, but it is, no doubt, quite common. There is a skin 

 in the University Museum which is thought to have been taken 

 from the Mississippi at Minneapolis, although there are no definite 

 data concerning it. There is a specimen in the museum of the Man- 

 kato State Normal School which was taken from the Minnesota 

 River at Mankato in the spring of 1894 by some fishermen. 



Order ISOSPONDYLI. 

 Family HIODONTID^. The Moon-eyes. 



Bod}^ very much compressed; rather long. Head short, covered 

 with scales and having a blunt snout; mouth medium sized, 

 obliquely set and with equal jaws; maxillary bones small. Teeth 

 well developed in the jaws, tongue, vomer, palatines and pterygoids. 

 Eye very large; nostrils large; gill membranes free from the 

 isthmus; 8 to 10 branchiostegal rays. Scales large; a straight 

 lateral line present. Gill rakers short and thick and not numerous. 

 Stomach horseshoe-shaped; one pyloric caecum; a large air-bladder. 



But one genus and one species known in Minnesota. 



Genus HIODON Le Sueur. 



Hiodon tergisus Le Sueur. Moon Eye. Toothed Herring. 



Color light silvery, a little darker above. Body considerably 

 compressed, rather long; pectoral fins not extending to the ven- 

 trals; belly compressed into a ridge behind the ventrals. Head 

 4^. Depth 3. Eye very large, contained 3 times in the head. 

 Scales 5-55-7. Dorsal fin with 12 rays. Anal 28. Length 12 inches. 

 Rather a common fish in the northern part of the state. Specimens 

 have been taken from the Mississippi River at Minneapolis (W. H. 

 Chambers, 1880) ; Red River of the North at Moorhead and Grand 

 Forks (N. D.) ; Red Lake River at Crookston, at all of which places 

 it is common (Woolman, 1892, Report U. S. Fish Comm., 1893, p. 

 371). 



Family DOROSOMID^. The Gizzard Shad. 



Body much compressed; very broad from the dorsal to the ven- 

 tral fins (deep); scales thin, dropping off easily; belly compressed 



