FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 211 



The attacks of the bowfin {Amia calva) are also infrequent, but are generally made, 

 as described above, just back of one of the paired fins. This is another voracious fish 

 that is worthless to mankind, excepting as a water scavenger, and it is increasing 

 rapidly in the waters of this State. If the lamprey would attack none but the gars, 

 suckers, and bowfins, it would be well, for the interests of man, to protect it and aid its 

 increase. 



Although the perch {Perca flavescens) and black bass (chiefly the small-mouth) are 

 fairly abundant in Cayuga Lake,- they are not often found injured. They of course 

 belong to the second group of fishes {Acanthopteri) named above, and the probable 

 reasons for their immunity from attacks are given there. Of the hundreds of perch 

 which we have seen taken from this lake not more than three or four bore distinct and 

 characteristic scars from the fish parasite. Hon. D. F. Van Fleet, of Ithaca, has caught 

 a black bass with a lamprey clinging to it, and two or three others have been as 

 definitely reported, while one was recently collected by us. 



The several dams without fishways in the Seneca and Oswego rivers now prevent 

 many anadromous fishes that were formerly abundant here from coming into the 

 interior lakes of this State. Among these are the salmon and white fish, both of which 

 were very abundant here before the river was obstructed, the wall-eyed pike, 

 mascalonge, cisco and others which are now found in Lake Ontario and adjacent 

 waters, but do not often occur here. Owing to the exclusion of these fishes from the 

 Cayuga Lake basin during the recent years that we have studied the subject, we 

 cannot personally testify to having found them attacked by lampreys, but the evidence 

 of old residents upon this subject is so unquestionable and unanimous that we have 

 unhesitatingly added the above-named species to the list of those attacked. 



We know of a sturgeon having been caught with six lampreys clinging to it, and it 

 is reported that some years ago, a Captain Van Order caught one with twenty-one 

 lampreys (perhaps lamprey scars) on it. Although we have caught lampreys on fishes 

 at all times of the year, there is no doubt that the period of most severe attacks is 

 during the latter part of winter and early spring (February and March). This season 

 of feasting may be to strengthen them for the long period of fasting during the period 

 of migration and spawning. In short, it appears to be their last opportunity to eat, 

 and they improve it. When a lamprey attacks a fish it at once attaches to it by 

 suction, the fleshy edge of the circular mouth being especially fitted for this. It then 

 commences, by a slightly swaying or oscillatory and circular movement, to cut away the 

 scales and skin under its mouth, using its one hundred and fifty teeth as rasps in this 

 process. This makes the characteristic circular scar the size and shape of the mouth, 

 which is usually about as large as a quarter of a dollar. The tongue is also used as a 

 rasp, and the four sets of teeth on it are arranged in -crescents, which come together 



