20 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



May, but the attempt to find their spawning beds has thus far 

 failed. Dr. Kofoid reported a 30-lb female taken moving 

 down stream at Meredosia Maj^ 5, 1899, which had evidently 

 completed spawning, the large ovary being flabby and spent. 

 On the other hand, a male weighing 251b, taken in Meredosia 

 Bay, had the testes large and full of milt. It is a common 

 belief of the fishermen that these fishes spawn in deep water, 

 though the reasons for this view are not conclusive. 



Dr. Evermann has recorded the paddle-fish's habit of swim- 

 ming near the surface of the water during the spring run — a fact 

 which is known to some fishermen*, and is taken advantage of 

 by them in their fishing operations. At other seasons the paddle- 

 fish is taken occasionally with set-hnes. 



Although long used and esteemed by the negroes of the 

 South, it has not had, until recently, any commercial value. 

 Small specimens weighing from 5 to 25 lb, are now regularly 

 sold, without head, fins, or tail, under the name of '^ boneless 

 cat." It is said that the flesh resembles that of the larger cat- 

 fishes, though perhaps inferior in quality. The fish is valued 

 chiefly, however, for the roe, which is made into a good qualit}^ 

 of caviar and sold for a high price. The caviar industry is 

 chiefly carried on along the lower Mississippi River, in Mis- 

 sissippi and Tennessee. The paddle-fish catch of Illinois was in 

 1894 reported at 135,756 lb, valued at $2,658; and in 1899 at 

 195,174 lb, with a value of $6,210. The total production of the 

 Mississippi Valley varies annually from 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 

 lb, about 10,000 ft) of this now being made each year into caviar. 



* Mr. H. L. Ashlock, of Alton, says that he always fishes the upper portion of the water for 

 spoonbills, and gets them when the other fishermen can get none, since few of them seem to know 

 of this peculiar habit of the species. 



