SIXTY-TWO SPECIES OF FISHES FROM LAKE ERIE 
305 
NUMERICAL SYNOPSIS OF SPECIMENS EXAMINED 
Before discussing the species in detail, the following numerical synopsis is given: 
In 1928, the Shearwater and Navette plankton nets and young fish trawls yielded 
1,049 specimens, representing 18 species. Supplementary collections from hatcheries, 
streams, and alongshore numbered about 49 more, making a total of 67 species for 
which descriptions of young forms have been made. 
The Shearwater collections in 1929 yielded 2,235 specimens, or more than double 
the number taken in 1928, representing 14 species. Six of these species were not 
taken previously by the Lake Erie collecting party, and 10 species captured by the 
Shearwater during the same period in 1928 were not among the later collections. Thus, 
the accidental aspect of our collecting methods and the need for carrying on studies 
over several years with young-fish nets of every description are strikingly emphasized. 
The collections examined in 1930, which had been taken during the previous year 
in the western part of Lake Erie along the Ohio shore, numbered over 20,000 individ- 
uals, representing 17 species. 
Counting several new records of distribution added by the present investigation 
to previous faunal lists of the region, there have been reported 112 species from the 
Erie-Niagara watershed, 92 of which are found in Lake Erie. Practically all of those 
species not taken by the cooperative survey are of extremely rare occurrence, and many 
are represented by a single record which may be questionable. 
DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIES 
Family LEPISOSTEIDzE, Gar-pikes 
1. Lepisosteus osseus Linnaeus. Long-nosed gar; gar-pike; bill-fish. 
RECORD OF CAPTURE 
One young fish, 41 millimeters long, was dipped from the surface at Buffalo on 
July 12, 1928. Adults are moderately common in Lake Erie and the Niagara River. 
DESCRIPTION 
The young are easily recognized by the greatly prolonged toothed jaws and elon- 
gate body, brilliant in seal, reddish-brown, and bronze. 
Figure 2 . — Lepisosteus osseus, 41 millimeters 
41 .0-millimeter stage. — Dorsal, 7; anal, 7 (incomplete). Total length, 41.0; 
length of head, 12.0; length to vent, 27.5; length to dorsal, 29.0; greatest depth, 3.0; 
diameter of eye, 3.0 millimeters. 
The most remarkable feature of this small and brilliant gar was the prolongation 
of the notochord into a fleshy filament, apart from the caudal fin, which kept up a 
rapid vibratory motion. That the caudal fin is not the true termination of the ver- 
tebral column, but an appendage to its lower portion, “a true second anal,” is thus 
strikingly demonstrated. 
