434 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



The industry gradually spread to the westward, and by 1890 bloaters were being taken out of Wilson. 

 At first they were extremely abundant, and it was never necessary, in American waters, to use a 

 net of smaller mesh than 3 inches, and usually the mesh employed was 33^ inches, but before 1900 

 the bloater was commercially exterminated, and efforts to revive the industry since then have 

 met with absolute failure. Repeated efforts to locate these fish, made by me in the summers of 

 1921 and 1923, failed, and not a single specimen was found, so that it appears likely that the species 

 is extinct. No cause for its extermination suggests itself. At no time were any but the largest 

 examples of the specfes taken, and so far as known it had no important vertebrate enemies. The 

 case has close parallels in the related blackfin of Lake Michigan and the bluefin in Lake Superior, 

 which suddenly became commercially insignificant, though not extinct, under identical conditions. 



BKEEDING HABITS 



George Jones, of Sodus Point, N. Y., and Paul Methot, of Oswego, N. Y., who 

 claim to have fished bloaters longest, state that the fish moved somewhat shallower, 

 to depths of 40 to 50 fathoms, in the spawning season. They spawned in January. 



LEUCICHTHYS KIYI Koelz 



The Kiyi (Fig. 22) 

 Leucichthys kiyi Koelz, 1921, Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior. 



Leucichthys Tciyi has been described from Lake Michigan and is known to occur 

 also in Lakes Superior, Huron, and Ontario. It is characterized everywhere by its 

 relatively small size (the individuals of Superior and Huron appear to be especially 

 dwarfed and seldom have been seen larger than 20 centimeters), thin body (which is 

 ovate in side view), and relatively long paired fins. It everywhere prefers deep 

 water and usually is found at depths of 60 fathoms or more. The Superior form 

 differs from the type form chiefly in attaining less size, in having somewhat fewer 

 scales in the lateral line, longer pectoral fins, and possibly an average larger head and 

 eye. It spawns in late November, also, as compared with October, which is the 

 supposed spawning time for the Michigan form. The Huron race differs from the 

 typical race chiefly in that it appears seldom to grow so large. The spawning time 

 in Huron in unknown, but it seems to be somewhat later than in Michigan. Ontario 

 specimens differ most of all from those of Michigan, and the Ontario race has been 

 designated here orientalis. They have many more gill rakers on the first branchial 

 arch, much shorter paired fins, and a somewhat shorter head. The spawning season 

 in Ontario apparently falls in August. 



The type is a female specimen (catalogue No. 84100, U. S. National Museum), 

 191 millimeters in length to the base of the caudal, collected in Lake Michigan on 

 August 23, 1920, 12 miles E. by S. of the mouth of the Sturgeon Bay ship channel in 

 60 to 70 fathoms of water. 



Leucichthys kiyi kiyi of Lake Michigan 



The kiyi is one of the smallest chubs. Extreme examples selected from hun- 

 dreds of specimens in the field measure only 245 millimeters. The fish are thin as 

 well as small and therefore are not esteemed by the fish smokers. The body is fusi- 

 form, slightly more compressed than in other members of the genus, and, as in 

 johannse and nigripinnis, its only associates of the deeper waters, the depth is dis- 

 tinctly greatest in front of the dorsal fin. This dimension in the type specimen com- 



