518 NATURAL HISTORY O^ AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



" Examining the fish on the 30th of October, It was found that the spawn of the White'flsh was 

 hard and firm, with rarely a fish approaching ripeness. On the 1st of November, in the picketed 

 pond, where the fishes are inclosed, numbers of fish were seen jumping from the water, principally 

 the Herring, who take delight in this exercise at different seasons of the year. Occasionally a 

 White-fish threw its bulkier form above the surface. On the 8th of the month Mr. Clark and I 

 were out on the piling surrounding the pond, and found the White-fish jumping in numbers, so 

 that there was a continual splashing of the water. They almost uniformly jumped in pairs, and 

 we could see quantities of spawn in the water immediately afterwards, which rapidly sank. Mr. 

 Clark and I both succeeded in capturing a pair in the act of leaving the water, and found male 

 and female with milt and spawn running freely. Mr. Clark made use of a fine wire scoop as the 

 pairs of fish disappeared from the surface, and almost invariably took a quantity of spawn from 

 the water. The males were uniformly smaller than the females. I succeeded in catching a pair in 

 which the female weighed seven pounds, and the male, who escaped before he was weighed, did 

 not exceed one and a half pounds. 



"November 9. — I again saw the White-fish jumping from the water in the evening, almost uni- 

 formly in pairs. Rarely there were three leaped together, one female and two males. In the pairs 

 there was always a large one, evidently a gravid female, and a smaller one, the male. At this sea- 

 son of the year it is easy to detect the difference in sex, the abdomen of the female being swollen 

 and rounded, while the males are leaner and angular in the abdominal lines. I saw by long watch- 

 ing that the males were worrying the females. They seemed possessed of strong sexual ardor, and 

 followed the female with persistence, keeping close against her and with the head about even with 

 the pectoral fin. Driven by the persistent attention of the male, the female arose vertically, he fol- 

 lowing, and she making a convulsive effort to escape, the water being from three to ten feet deep, 

 they threw themselves together above the surface, and the spawn and milt were emitted at the 

 time when, from their position, their vents were approximated. The sjjasmodic fiuttering and 

 effort observed suggested a sexual orgasm. At times I saw them moving rapidly beneath the 

 water in the same close contact, and the male with his snout even with the pectoral fin of the 

 female, often turning together with the white of the belly upward as she turned and twisted to 

 escape him. Often as they came out of the water they would fall apart in different directions, but 

 the male invariably turned immediately in pursuit, so that I was led to think they were monog- 

 amous, as is the fact with their relatives the Salmon and the Speckled Trout. 



" November 10. — The White-fish jumping in great numbers toward sunset. In most instances, 

 when near by, I observed a quantity of eggs, perhaps three hundred or five hundred, emitted at 

 once. The milt of the male did not discolor the water. The same actions occurred as before 

 observed, springing vertically from the water with a spasmodic, fluttering effort, the male's head 

 opposite the pectoral fin of the female, turning together beneath the water until both abdomens 

 showed upwards. Occasionally three sprang above the surface together. Sometimes the pair 

 fluttered along the surface together for a long distance. 



"November 14 and 15.— Went out to the pond at midnight, and again at 1 o'clock a. m., and 

 found the White-fish jumping. The fact that they are quiet in the daytime, previous to four or 

 Ave o'clock in the afternoon, indicates a parallel habit to that observed by Seth Green, of New 

 York, in the shad, they, as he asserts, spawning principally in the night, though, unlike what was 

 the case with the shad, we had no difficulty in finding spawners in the forenoon with the seine. 



"November 18.— The fishing stopped all along the river. Visited the island. Cold, strong 

 wind from the southwest. Thermometer 26°. No White-fish to be seen in the pond. A few 

 Herring coursing around the piling. 



