SALMONOID FISHES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 
17 
above, with many dark points; belly white; dorsal and caudal mostly blackish; pectorals and ventrals 
tipped with black; eye blackish, the iris silvery. Length a foot or less. Yukon River to Bering Sea 
and northward, ascending rivers. 
To this Evermann & Goldsborough add the following from specimens from Lake Bennett at Cari- 
bou Crossing: 
Head 4.67 in body; depth 5.5; eye 3.75 in head; dorsal 10; anal 12; ventral n; scales 10-90-8. 
Body rather elongate, compressed; mouth oblique, gape rather small, extending back about half the 
length of the maxillaries; lower jaw considerably projecting; maxillary broad, somewhat curved, not 
extending much beyond the anterior margin of orbit, its length 3.13 in head; mandible long, reaching 
to below middle of pupil, 2.3 in head; teeth almost microscopic in both jaws, none on tongue; gillrakers 
long, slender, and numerous, 10+26 and 13+28; dorsal high, its longest ray (about the third) about 
I. 3 in head and about twice length of base; base of dorsal 2.5 in head; dorsal rays shortening rapidly 
after third and fourth, leaving the margin of the fin very slightly concave; insertion of dorsal midway 
between tip of snout and a point about halfway between adipose and caudal fins; caudal large, equally 
forked, both lobes and indentation acutish; anal low, its longest ray 2.25 in head, its base 2 in head, its pos- 
terior margin slightly concave; ventrals inserted somewhat behind origin of dorsal, reaching about ^dis- 
tance to origin of anal, the length of their longest rays about 1.3 in head; pectoral equaling ventral. 
Bluish above, with minute black punctulations; sides below lateral line and a short distance above 
silvery, belly white; dorsal and caudal almost imperceptibly dusky; other fins wholly plain; iris silvery 
a narrow blackish ring about the orbit plainest above and below. 
Leucichthys artedi (Le Sueur). Lake Herring; Erie Herring; Common Lake Herring; Grayback. 
Coregonus artedi Le Sueur, Joum. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. i, 1818, p. 231, Lake Erie (at Buffalo) and Niagara 
River (Lewistown); description inadequate. Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, p. 301, 1883. 
Argyrosomus artedi, Evermann & Smith, Rept. U. S. Fish Comm. 1894, p. 305, in part (not plate). Jordan & 
Evermann, Fishes North and Mid. Amer., pt. 1, p. 468, 1898. Of recent authors generally. 
Coregonus clupeiformis, Gunther, Cat., vol. vi, p. 198 (not Salmo clupeaformis Mitchill). 
The name artedi applied by Le Sueur to specimens from near Buffalo must be retained for the 
common lake herring of Lake Erie. 
This species is characterized by its relatively deep elliptical form with compressed sides and rather 
stout caudal peduncle, in connection with the large adipose fin. All the other species of this subgenus, 
bisse/li and eriensis excepted, are much more slender in all their parts. The average length of this 
species in Lake Erie is 12 to 14 inches and the weight about 14 or 15 ounces. The fishermen of Lake 
Erie are in general entirely satisfied with a mesh of 3 inches to catch artedi and eriensis, while for the 
other species a mesh of 2X inches is required, and this is too coarse for the form called supernas. This 
species is also paler in color than any of the others, eriensis excepted, and lacks the blue shades character- 
istic of huronius and ontariensis . The flesh in artedi, as in huronius, is much inferior to that of eriensis. 
This is the most abundant of the lake herrings so far as market fishing is concerned. It abounds 
in Lake Erie, especially in its southern parts. It ascends to Lake St. Clair, and we have one fine 
example from Lake Huron at Port Huron, where it was taken with a multitude of huronius. We 
have also examples obtained by Dr. Seth E. Meek at Toronto. As Doctor Meek was present at the cap- 
ture of the Toronto specimens, there is no doubt that they came from Lake Ontario, but we know 
also that whitefish and herring fry have been often transferred from Lake Erie to other lakes, and 
it is possible that L. artedi is not native to Lake Ontario. 
The specimens here figured are from Cleveland and Toronto. The fish from the latter place is 
a ripe female with unusually deep body. Others at hand for comparison are five from Erie, one 
from Port Maitland, three from Toronto, and one from Port Huron (Lake Huron). The presence of 
a specimen at the latter locality indicates the tendency of these closely allied species to invade one 
another’s territory. 
The Lake Erie herring is described as follows, from eleven specimens, between 8.3 inches and 
I I. 8 inches long, from Lake Erie off Cleveland: 
Head 4.4 in body to base of caudal; depth of body 3 to 4; length of caudal peduncle from last 
rays of anal to first of caudal 2 to 2.75 in head, its depth 2 to 2.5; eye about 4.4; snout 4; interor- 
bital space slightly greater than length of snout; maxillary measuring from tip of snout 2.87 in head; 
48299° — Bull. 29 — 11 2 
