COMMON WHITE-FISH. 879 



93. CoKEGONUs ciUPEiFOEMis (MitchiU) Milner. 



Common ^Vhite-fish. 



Salmo clvpei/ormii, Mitchill, Amer. Monthly Mag., ii, 1818, 321. 



Coregonus clupeiformis, Milner, Mas., in Jordan, Man. Vert., 2d Ed., 1878, 362. (Not of 



aathors generally = C. artedi.) 

 Coregonus albus, LbSubuR, Jonrn. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., i, 1818, 231.— Gunther, Cat. 



Fishes Brit. Mus., vi, 184, and of most anthors. 

 Coregonus ofsego, Dewitt Clinton, Med. Phil. Eegist , iii, IS-", the " Otsego Lake Bass.'' 

 Coregonus richardsoni, latior and aapidissimua, Gunther, Cat. Fishes .Brit. Mns., vi, 



185, lfc6. 



Description. — Body oblong, corapressed, always more or lees elevated, and becoming 

 notably so in the adnlt ; head comparatively small and short, the snoat blnntish, ob- 

 liqaely truncated ; maxillary reaching jnst past front of orbit, about four in head ; eye 

 large, 4 to 5 in bead ; color olivaceous above ; sides white, but not silver} ; width of pre- 

 orbital less than half that of pnpil ; lower fins shortish ; gill raliers moderate, slender, 

 two-thirds diameter of eye, about 50 below ang!e of arch ; tip. of snont on level of pupil ; 

 tip of lower jaw on level of lower part of eye ; head 5 in Isngth ; depth 3 to 4 ; D. 11 ; 

 A. 11; scales 8-74-9. Length, 20 inches. "The average white-fish is of two or three 

 pounds weight, a large one six or aeven ; rare specimens are caught, however, of much 

 greater weight, sometimes turning (he scales at 20 pounds." — Siockwell. 



Habitat, large bodies of water ; Great Lakes and northward. 



Diagnosis. — This species may be known from other White-fishes by the 

 small mouth and short lower jaw, in connection with the slender gill- ' 

 rakers and narrow preorbital. The young are much slenderer than the 

 adult, and the variations due to food and condition are very great. Old 

 fishes usually have a considerable fleshy hump at the shoulders, and the 

 head seems disproportionately small. 



Hdbi'a. — The following account of the spawing habits is from the pen 

 of Dr. G. A. Stockwell, of Port Huron, Michigan (in Hallock's Sports- 

 man's Gazetteer, 4th edition, 332, 1878) : 



" The spawning begins in November, terminating in December, and is indicated by 

 the fish leaving deep water and appearing in immense numbers on rocky shoals. 

 Formerly they frtquented the streams for this purpoee, but at the present time, there 

 are but few streams etuptjiog into the Gieat Lakes that are free fiom saw-mills and 

 their attendant dust, which is offensive to these fish. At the first day's netting on the 

 spawning beds, the catch is wholly males, apparently well stocked with milt ; on the 

 second, a few females appear, plump with spawn The proportion of females increased 

 day by day until a week or ten days when there are two or three and often four times 

 as many females as males, after which they gradually disappear, until the latter pre- 

 ponderate as they are the last as w«Il as first upon the beds. The best opinion seems to 

 be that the males precede the feiuales only to prepare the ground ; especially as they at 

 that time assume an extraordinary roughnessof scales and employ themselves constantly 

 in scraping up gravel on which the spawn is subsequently deposited. Some, however, 

 believe that the mere inclination to milt causes them to seek the proper position with- 



