238 NATUEAL HISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



DiSTEiBTTTiON. — The United States National Museum has specimens of the Burbot from a 

 tributary of Hudson's Bay, Mackenzie's Eiver, Yukon Eiver and Kodiak (Alaska), Winnipiseogee 

 Lake, the Connecticut Eiver and Scantic Eiver, Connecticut; Seneca Palls and Madrid, New York; 

 the Great Lakes, Winnebago Lake and Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Kansas City, Missouri; Fort Pierre, 

 Nebraska; the Bighorn and Little Bighorn Elvers in Montana, and Great Slave Lake. The 

 species occurs in the Yellowstone Eiver, the Missouri Eiver, in tributaries of the Ohio, in the 

 Mohawk Eiver, and has once been obtained in the Susquehanna Eiver, according to Professor 

 Cope in the report of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, 1881. 



Abundance. — The Burbot is most abundant in lakes, to wit: The Great Lakes, lakes of New 

 York, Winnipiseogee Lake, and lakes of Maine and New Brunswick. In general terms, including 

 under the name "Burbot" both the American and European forms, the species maybe said to 

 inhabit the fresh waters of the northern regions both of Europe and America, being particularly 

 abundant in the Great Lakes and in all ponds, lakes, and large streams, thence northward to the 

 Arctic Circle. According to Dall it is exceedingly abundant in the rivers and lakes of Alaska. 

 The Burbot is not known to enter brackish water at the mouths of rivers. According to Mr. W. 

 Ainsworth, Burbot are found principally in deep water and on mud, except during the spawning 

 season, which occurs in March, when they run on rock or hard bottom. This refers to the Lake 

 Ontario region. Col. A. G. Braokett, U. S. A., states that the fish seem to be quite common in the 

 Bighorn Eiver, Montana. In the northern rivers, as a rule, the species is very abundant, though 

 within the limits of the United States, so far as we know, the species is less common in rivers. 

 Mr. Charles Lanman writes that it is abundant in Lake Timisconti, and also in the Eagle and Saint 

 Francis Lakes. 



Eeproduction. — The spawning season of the Burbot is late winter or early spring. It is 

 probable that the eggs, which are small and numerous, are deposited in deep water. Mr. Dall says 

 that the eggs of the Burbot are of a creamy-yellow color in Alaskan specimens. The same writer 

 states that the fish are full of spawn from November to January. He also says that a single 

 Burbot (Losh) contains millions of eggs. 



According to Pennant, the Burbot spawns early in February, and "is unhappily most prolific. 

 Mr. Hutchins counted in a single fish 671,248 ovaria." In the Great Lake region it is considered 

 probable that the Burbot spawns in deep water. Specimens forwarded from that region by Mr. E. 

 G. Blackford, in the month of November, 1877, were distended with ripe eggs. 



According to Mr. Dall, the males are usually much smaller than the females, averaging only 

 eighteen or twenty inches in length, while the female attains a length of four or five ft- et. He 

 states also that the male has a smaller liver and one pyritbrm gall-bladder on the left side. Some 

 specimens, however, present the physiological curiosity of having two, or even three, distinct gall- 

 bladders opening into the same duct, and uniform in size and shape. Mr. Dall has, however, never 

 seen a double gall bladder in a female Burbot. The only marked feature in reference to these fish 

 at the spawning season is the greatly increased abundance. The young of this species are not 

 described in any American work, so far as I know. Eichardson found small Burbots in the 

 stomach of the Lake Trout, Salvelinus namaycush. He states in "Fauna Boreali Americana," 

 p. 180, that " in the month of March, in latitude 64°, we saw that capacious receptacle [stomach 

 of Salvelinus namaycush] crammed witb the young of the Lota maculosa." 



The development of the European variety is partially illustrated by text and figures in a paper 

 by Carl J. Sundevall on "The Development of Fishes," published in the "Proceedings of the 

 Swedish Academy," 1862. The text is here in part translated: 



" The spawning season of the Burbot commences in January or February. The eggs are laid 



