FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 249 



creamy white below. At the side of its tail there is a conspicuous spot, with a ring of 

 orange about it, and flecks of scarlet are sometimes seen, as in the specimen figured, 

 on the sides of the body. The female, on the other hand, is somber in hue and 

 scarcely shows the spot at the base of the tail. In the latter regard, however, the 

 females show considerable variation: in some cases hardly a trace of this caudal spot 

 can be seen. The accompanying colored plate represents the fish, male and female, 

 in the colors they assume during the height of the breeding season. The drawings 

 from which these figures were taken were colored from living specimens by the 

 late Dr. Arnold Graf. 



The dogfish has been described by some as diurnal, by others as nocturnal in its 

 habits. In the daytime during the season of breeding the fish can readily be seen in 

 shallow waters, and, when not actually on its nest, can sometimes be made to take a 

 bait. At night, however, judging from my own experience with set lines, the fish is 

 not often taken. And the result of my later observations is not favorable to the view 

 that the dogfish is distinctly nocturnal in habit. With a view of determining how 

 active the fish were at night, I have kept them in captivity and I have also watched 

 them at different hours on their spawning grounds, when light was no more than 

 sufficient to enable their outlines to be seen. My conclusions indicate that the 

 dogfish is rather to be regarded as most active at twilight. It takes the hook best 

 shortly after sundown and during the early morning, and at these times I have seen 

 it exceedingly active under natural conditions. In a general way the fish can hardly 

 be described as shy. As far as taking an alarm is concerned, it behaves very much as 

 a catfish: it is certainly less apt to notice one's approach than, for example, many 

 common teleosts. 



The general habitat of the fish varies greatly at different seasons of the year. In 

 summer it frequents deeper water; in spring it comes into the marshy shallows and 

 makes its way through reedy places where the water is scarcely deep enough to 

 cover its dorsal fin. In general it affects muddy water. 



In the matter of feeding, the rapacious nature of the dogfish has already been 

 noted. Its common articles of diet, as Fiilleborn, for example, has noted, are small 

 fishes and crayfish. The latter are especially common in the stomach contents. 

 Among the specimens examined by the present writer was noted one, a female, meas- 

 uring twenty-eight inches, which had eaten, among other things, a pickerel twelve 

 inches in length. Another, a female measuring thirty-one inches, contained the 

 columns of eleven fishes, cyprinoids, each about three inches in length. Another, 

 taken at twilight near the margin of a rubbish heap, had eaten scraps of meat and a 

 lump of a raw potato, the latter having been taken from the stomach altogether 

 undigested. Among the local fishermen of the Wisconsin lakes, salt pork is well 



