298 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
time, we strive in the end to secure complete series of stages which will positively link 
up the earliest larva with the parent form. 
The adult fish is usually so very different in coloration, body proportions, and 
general characters from the younger stages that existing descriptions are often 
worthless. It seemed wise to attempt a collection of postlarvse and young adults 
which might form a connecting link between the very tiny specimens caught in our 
nets and the older known adults. The Erie-Niagara watershed survey staff of the 
New York State Conservation Department gave us valuable cooperation in 1928, 
bringing in 37 species of small fishes. We adopted a special form of description and 
card-catalogued all species in this way. Thus additional data were recorded, such as 
the myomere count and chromatophore marking previous to the appearance of scales, 
which are invaluable for work on the earlier developmental stages. 
EXPLANATIONS 
At the beginning of the Lake Erie survey it was agreed, for uniformity among 
the various workers, to use the names of species as they were stated in “A Check-List 
of the Fishes of the Great Lakes and Tributary Waters, with Nomenclatorial Notes 
and Analytical Keys, ” by Carl L. Hubbs, University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology, 
Miscellaneous Publication No. 15, 1926. Hubbs’s nomenclature, therefore, has been 
used in the present paper, but where the names given certain species in “Check List 
of the Fishes and Fishlike Vertebrates of North and Middle America North of the 
Northern Boundary of Venezuela and Colombia,” by David Starr Jordan, Barton 
Warren Evermann, and Howard Walton Clark, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries Document 
No. 1055, Washington, 1930, differed from that previous list, the later name has been 
added in brackets below the one used by Hubbs. 
Unless otherwise stated, all descriptions and drawings have been made from 
preserved specimens. Preservation was necessary because the collections in most 
cases could npt be studied until the end of each cruise. The use of weak formalin, 
however, caused only slight shrinkage, and, except for some opacity, no visible change 
in the specimens occurred. 
In describing the pigmentation of young fishes, the word “subsurface” is fre- 
quently used in reference to those chromatophores which lie below the outer surface, 
such as those distributed often over the air bladder or the intestinal tract. When 
the specimen has been rendered very opaque by growth or preservation, these pigment 
spots are not readily seen. Use of the transparency Method III described on page 
297, however, will usually make them visible. 
The word “incomplete” following a fin-ray count in young specimens means 
that the fin is not wholly developed and therefore the formula is incomplete. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
I am deeply grateful to Vernon S. L. Pate, artist of the report during the three 
summers of the Lake Erie investigation; and to Dr. Charles J. Fish, director of the 
cooperative survey, for certain drawings contained in tins report, and for continued 
assistance and helpful suggestions throughout the duration of the work. 
I am indebted to E. L. Wickliff and Prof. T. L. Hankinson for data and collections; 
Dr. John Van Oosten for a very large and complete series of young whitefish; J. L. 
Hart for whitefish, herring, perch, pike-perch, and muskalonge; J. P. Snyder for 
