LOTA BURBOTS 331 



equal villiform teeth ; vomer with a broad crescentic band of villiform 

 teeth; no teeth on palatines; dorsal fins 2, the first short, the second long 

 and similar to the anal; caudal rounded, its outer rays procurrent; scales 

 very small, embedded; vertical fins scaly. One or two species; confined 

 to the fresh waters of northern regions. 



LOTA MACULOSA (Le Sueur) 

 (burbot; ling; eel-pout) 



Le Sueur, 1817, J. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., I, 83 (Gadus). 



G., IV, 359 (vulgaris, part); J. & G., 802; M. V., 162 (lota); J. & E., Ill, 2550; N., 

 42 (lacustris); J., 51 (lacustris); F., 62; F. F., II. t, 433; L., 30. 



Length 2 feet; body extremely elongate, not much compressed, ex- 

 cept posteriorly, the back low and the profile Jong and straight; depth 

 7.6; greatest width of body about . 7 to .9 greatest depth. Color "dark 

 plive, thickly marbled and reticulated with blackish, yellowish or dusky 

 beneath; young often sharply marked, the adult becoming dull grayish; 

 vertical fins with dusky margins" (Jordan and Evermann). Head broad 

 and depressed, 4.7 to 5 in length; width head 1.6 in its length; interor- 

 bital space flat, 3.4 to 3.6; nose 2\ times eye, 3.4 to 3.S, each nostril 

 with a short barbel {\ eye) ; mouth horizontal, rather large, maxillary 

 past back of pupil, 2.5 to 2 . 6; chin with a single median barbel \\ times 

 length of eye; gill-rakers short, about 3+6. Dorsal 12 or 13, 70 to 75, the 

 second very long and low, its longest rays less than half head; caudal 

 rounded, its outer rays procurrent, the separation between caudal, dorsal, 

 and anal slight; anal rays about 65; ventrals inserted before pectorals; 

 pectorals 1 \ in head. Scales very small, embedded, 27 to 30 in an oblique 

 series from front of second dorsal to lateral line; cheeks and opercles with 

 very small embedded scales; all fins more or less scaly. 



The range of this species is throughout New England and the 

 Great Lake region and northward to the Arctic zone, in lakes and 

 sluggish streams ; occasionally taken in the Ohio and the upper Mis- 

 sissippi. Additional to its occurrence in Lake Michigan, we have 

 specimens on record also from the Illinois River at Peoria, Havana, 

 Meredosia, and Naples, from the Rock River at Milan, and from the 

 Mississippi at Rock Island. These are all cases of the occurrence of 

 a single fish in a place, and there is nothing to indicate any perma- 

 nent invasion of our rivers by this species. 



The burbot lives in deep water, where it lies during the day under 

 the shelter of stones (Brehm). It is exceedingly voracious, not 

 even sparing its own kind. Zadock Thompson* says that he has 

 taken specimens with the abdomen so much distended with food 

 as to give the fish the appearance of a globefish or toadfish. One 



*Evermann and Kendall, Rep. U. S. Fish Comm., 1894, p. 603. 



