Fish Study 159 



because of its peculiar form. The scales are rather large and are notice- 

 ably larger behind than in the region of the head. Like other fish it is 

 white below. 



The dorsal fin is placed about midway the length of the fish as measured 

 from nose to tail. It is not large and appears to have twelve rays; but 

 there is a short spine in front and a delicate soft ray behind so that it 

 really has fourteen. The tail is long and strong and deeply notched: 

 the anal fin extends back to where the tail begins. The ventral fins are 

 small and are directly opposite the hind half of the dorsal fin. The pec- 

 torals are not large but are strong and are placed low down. The sucker 

 has not a lavish equipment of fins but its tail is strong and it can swim 

 swiftly; it is also a tremendous jumper; it will jump from the aquarium 

 more successfully than any other fish. When resting on the bottom, it is 

 supported by its extended pectoral and ventral fins, which are strong 

 although not large. 



The eyes are fairly large but the iris is not shiny; they are placed so 

 that the fish can easily see above it as well as at the sides; the eyes 

 move so as to look up or down and are very well adapted to serve a fish 

 that lives upon the bottom. The nostrils are divided, the partition pro- 

 jecting until it seems a tubercle on the face. The mouth opens below and 

 looks like the puckered opening of a bag. The lips are thick but are very 

 sensitive; it is by projecting these lips, in a way that reminds one of a 

 very short elephant's trunk, that it is enabled to reach and find its food 

 in the mud or gravel; so although the sucker's mouth is not a beautiful 

 feature, it is doubly useful. The sucker has the habit of remaining 

 motionless for long periods of time. It breathes very slowly and appears 

 sluggish; it never seizes its food with any spirit but simply slowly en- 

 gulfs it; and for this reason it is considered poor game. It is only in the 

 spring when they may be speared through the ice that there is any fun in 

 catching suckers; it is at this season of the year that they move to shallow 

 water to spawn ; those in the lakes move to the rivers, those in the rivers 

 to the creeks, those in the creeks to the brooks. Even so lowly a creature 

 as the sucker seems to respond to influences of the springtime, for at that 

 period the male has a faint rosy stripe along his sides. In the winter these 

 fish burrow in the mud of the river or pond bottoms; they may be frozen 

 and thawed without harming them. 



There are many species of suckers and they vary in size from six 

 inches to three feet in length. They inhabit all sorts of waters, but they 

 do not like a strong current and are, therefore, found in still pools. The 

 common sucker (Catostomus conimersoni] , which is the subject of this 

 lesson, sometimes attains the length of twenty-two inches and the weight 

 of five pounds. The ones under observation were about eight inches 

 long, and proved to be the acrobats of the aquarium, since they were 

 likely at any moment to jump out; several times I found one languishing 

 on the floor. 



