3IO Roosevelt JVild Life Bulletin 



Xeedham (/22') names the bullhead as one of the most valuable 

 species of Lake George. In the same report Moore says concerning 

 the young : '"' Their period of active feeding begins when they leave 

 the cover of the nest and under the protection of either one or both 

 parents spread over the rim of the nest in quest of food. At this 

 time they are about 10-12 millimeters long and are as black as 

 tadpoles. . . . Their iirst meal consists of the minute animal 

 organisms which are developed in the vegetation of the spawning- 

 grounds. These are the minutest of the waterfieas and Crustacea 

 together with very small midge lar\-ae. They remain the prominent 

 staples until the fr\" are about two weeks old, though by this time 

 they do not confine themselves to the minutest forms. At about 

 the age of two weeks the schools scatter and the individuals behave 

 much as do the older bullheads in their food gathering, scooping up 

 algae, debris and the like along with the animal life." 



The bullhead is of wide natural distribution but it attects still 

 waters,. — lakes, ponds and " dead waters " of streams. 



The JVhitefishes. The whitefish famil}- comprises a great many 

 nominal species or races, particularly those commonly designated as 

 " herring." and many waters of northern Xew York contain one or 

 more of them. 



Some of them are occasionally taken on a baited hook or on a 

 fly. However, they are not generally recognized as game fish and 

 are not propagated and distributed as such. 



Not much is known concerning the life histories of any of the 

 whitefishes, but the Federal Government and certain States have 

 extensively propagated some species. Bean lists four species as dis- 

 tributed to some extent by the Xew York State Consers-ation Com- 

 mission. These are the common whitefish. the round whitefish or 

 Adirondack " frost fish," Lake Erie herring and greenback herring. 

 In later reports of the Conservation Commission the tuUibee is also 

 mentioned. 



Special eftort should be made to study the life histories and con- 

 ditions of environment of the various important species. 



I. Common Whitefish. Bean ('16) wrote: " The common white- 

 fish, probably the most esteemed of all fresh-water food fishes, is 

 foimd in Lake Ontario, some Adirondack lakes, Otsego Lake, and 

 several other lakes in the central and western parts of the State. It 

 is an inhabitant of cold, deep water, coming to the shallower parts to 

 spawn. It may be taken with hook and line, but is usually caught 

 with nets. The food of adults consists largely of crustaceans, and 

 also mollusks, insect larvae, and small fish; that of the fry and 

 young fish is almost wholly small crustaceans. 



" The ivy are distributed in ]March and April and should be 

 planted in tiie shoal parts of lakes." 



These instructions concerning the planting of fry alTord no 

 advance over the procedure of many years ago. 



Thirty years ago Professor J. Reighard wrote concerning white- 

 fish in the Great Lakes ("94) : '' Several hundred million ova are 



