8 
BULLETIN OF TtlE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY AND ECONOMIC VALUE OF COREGONUS 
PROGNATHUS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LAKE ONTARIO. 
A few notes based on original observations and inquiries can be submitted regard- 
ing the habits and importance of this fish; they relate chieliy to Lake Ontario, where 
the fish is of considerable commercial value. The writer is indebted to the following 
gentlemen for interesting information concerning the flsh, based on their personal 
experience: Mr. John S. Wilson, Wilson, ]N. Y. ; Mr. Charles H. Strowger, Mue-Mile 
Point, hr. Y. ; and Mr. B. E. Ingersoll, Oswego, hi. Y. 
In a paper * on the fisheries of Lake Ontario, issued in 1892, the writer drew atten- 
tion to this fish, but erroneously, although dubiously, referred to it under the name 
Coregoims hoiji. In an earlier report,! relating to the fisheries of the Great Lakes in 
1885, the fish under discussion was also mentioned by its common names, without any 
attemirt to identify it scientifically. 
COMMON NAMES. 
There are at least ten common names given to this fish in Lake Ontario and Lake 
Michigan. Some of these are of local application ; others are quite generally employed. 
In Lake Michigan, the most common name in present use is “long-jaw,” which is 
heard along both sides of the lake, but most frequently in localities having steamers 
enq:)loyed in the deep-water gill-net fishery. In places in this lake it shares with 
6’. artedi the name “herring.” 
In Lake Ontario this fish, whenever taken, is distinguished by the fishermen 
from the other Coregoni, and has received numerous names in different parts of the 
lake. In the eastern end, in Jefferson County, the name “ bloater” is in general use. 
At Oswego and along the adjacent shores the name “long-jaw,” “bloater,” “bloater 
whitefish,” “silver whitefish,” and “ Ontario whitefish” are employed. Mr. Ingersoll, 
of Oswego, states that in the Hew York market the fish is called “ siscowet” or “cis- 
coette,” a designation which has been transferred to afewplacfs on Lake Ontario. In 
Hiagara County the names “long-jaw” and “cross whitefish” are in common use, the 
latter exijressing the current opinion among some fishermen that the “long-jaw” is a 
hybrid between the common whitefish and the cisco, or lake herring. Owing to the 
relative scarcity of the latter and the abundance of the other whitefish at Wilson, in 
Niagara County, some of the fishermen call the latter the “cisco,” although they 
do not fail to distinguish it from the regular lake herring. Mr. Wilson states that 
“long-jaw” is the name generally employed in that locality. This, it would seem, is 
perhaps the most appropriate common name given to the fish. 
The origin of the name “ bloater” or “bloater whitefish” can no doubt be traced 
to the swollen appearance of the abdomen when the fish are brought up from deep 
water, owing to tlie exiiansiou of the air bladder under the diminished xiressure near 
or at the surface. All of the fresh specimens examined by me have had the apiiear- 
ance of being greatly enlarged with ripe spawn, and the swimming-bladders were 
found to be distended. Mr. Strowger states that in the few instances in which he has 
noticed fish caught in comparatively shallow water there were no signs of bloating. 
* Report on an Investigation of the Fi slieries of Lake Ontario. Bulletin U. S. Fisli Commission, 
1890, p. 207. 
t Review of the Fisheries of the Great Lakes. Report U. S. Coniinissiouer of Fish and Fisheries for 
1887, p. 316 
