FISHES OF NEW YORK 101 



shanty known as ^ Pancake Hall \" The fish were spawning, 

 xind he discovered many eggs under the stones. The females 

 were brown with white on belly, the male with red stripe on 

 the side. 



57 Catostomus commersonii (Lac^p^de) 



^ Common Sucker 



Oyprinus commersonnii Lacepede, Hist. Nat, Poiss. V, 503. 610. 1803. 

 €yprinus teres Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 458, 1815. 

 Catostomus teres Gunther, Gat. Fish. Brit. Miis. VII, 15, 1868; Bean, 



Fishes Penna. 25, 1893. 

 ■Catostomus communis De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 196, pi. 33, fig. 106, 



1842. 

 Catostomus palUdus De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 200, pi. 33, fig. 104, 1842. 

 Catostomus conmiersoni Joedan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1883. 

 datostomus commersonii Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 



178, 1896, pi. XXXIV, fig. 83, 1900. 



The common sucker has a moderately stout body, heavy at 

 the shoulders and tapering to the tail. Its greatest depth is 

 i^ontained four and one half times in its length to tail, slightly 

 more than length of head. Head conical, flattened on top; 

 mouth rather large and the lips strongly papillose; dorsal fin 

 -situated i^ middle of length; ventral opposite dorsal; anal far 

 back; second and third branched rays of dorsal highest, two 

 thirds the length of head; third and fourth rays of anal longest, 

 almost equal to length of head. D. 12; A. 7; V. 9. Scales 64; 

 from dorsal to lateral line 9, and from lateral line to ventral, 

 9 or 10. 



The common sucker is also known as the pale sucker, white 

 sucker, gray sucker, brook sucker, and, among the Canadian 

 French, as the carpe 'blanche. It is the commonest member of 

 its genus in waters east of the Rocky mountains. It is found 

 from Canada to Florida and westward to Montana. Covering 

 -such a wide range of territory, the species is naturally variable, 

 ^nd has been described over and over again by many authorities 

 under a great variety of names. The male of this sucker in 

 ■spring has a faint rosy stripe along the middle of the side. 

 The young are brownish in color and somewhat mottled and 

 liave a dark median band or a series of large blotches. The 



