The Ganoids 



35 



The family of Amiidcz contains a single recent species, 

 Amia calva, the only living member of the order Halecomorphi. 

 The bowfin, or grindle, is a remarkable fish abounding in the 

 lakes and swamps of the Mississippi Valley, the Great Lake 

 region, and southward to Virginia, where it is known by the 

 imposing but unexplained title of John A. Grindle. In the 

 Great Lakes it is usually called "dogfish," because even the 

 dogs will not eat it, and "lawyer," because, according to Dr. 

 Kirtland, "it will bite at anything and is good for nothing 

 when caught." 



The bowfin reaches a length of two and one half feet, the 

 male being smaller than the female and marked by an ocellated 

 black spot on the tail. Both sexes are dark mottled green in 



FIG. 25. Bowfin (female), Amia calva Linnaeus. Lake Michigan. 



color. The flesh of the species is very watery, pasty, much 

 of the substance evaporating when exposed to the air. It is 

 ill-flavored, and is not often used as food. The species is 

 very voracious and extremely tenacious of life. Its well-devel- 

 oped lung enables it to breathe even when out of the water, and 

 it will live in the air longer than any other fish of American 

 waters, longer even than the horned pout (Ameiurus) or the 

 mud -minnow (Umbra). As a game fish the grindle is one of 

 the very best, if the angler does not care for the flesh of what he 

 catches, it being one of the hardest fighters that ever took the hook. 

 The Amiida retain many of the Ganoid characters, though 

 approaching more nearly than any other of the Ganoids to the 

 modern herring tribe. For this reason the name Halecomorphi 

 (shad-formed) was given to this order by Professor Cope. The 

 gular plate found in Amia and other Ganoids reappears in 

 the herring-like family of Elopidce, which includes the tarpon 

 and the ten -pounder. 



