1915] The Ottawa Naturalist. 115 



/w/a; and Rafinesque, 1820, as Acipenser lagenarius) ; and irom 

 Lake Ontario (Rafinesque, 1820, as Proceros vUtaitis)." 



Supplementing its records, a quotation from Dr. Prince, 

 given as a foot note in the Check List, is introduced here: — 



" Old fishermen near Point Edward, on the Lambton county 

 shore, vaguely refer to other specimens occurring in Lake 

 Huron." 



The form and structure of the paddle-fish determine it to 

 be a species whose habitat is at the bed of the rivers or lakes 

 where ordinarily it occurs. The fusiform body is little com- 

 pressed, and its long spatulate and somewhat flexible blade, 

 preceding the rest of the head, enables it to scoop among the 

 mud or ooze in the obtaining of its food. It is probably for 

 this reason that it has seldom been found in lakes or rivers tri- 

 butory to such deep lakes as Lakes Superior and Huron are, 

 and the inference is that it normally remains in the depths; 

 and whilst it is true that individuals of this fish have been 

 found with ripe eggs in Kentucky, in the month of May, and 

 that the paddle-fish was then swimming up stream, so that it 

 has been supposed to spawn in bayous along the river, yet its 

 spawning'^grounds do not appear to have been located; be- 

 sides which the fry are entirely unknown, and the young of the 

 paddle-fish, even where it occurs plentifully in the United States, 

 has never been found of a length less than about six inches. 



The idea that the paddle-fish normally remains in the 

 depths, or even spawns there, is perhaps strengthened by what 

 is known concerning the structure and habits of its only im- 

 mediate ally, the fish krfown as Psephurus gladius of great rivers 

 of China, such as the Hoangho and Yang-tse-Kiang. That 

 fish, which is said to attain the great length of twenty feet, has 

 a rostrum of conical shape instead of a spatulate blade like that 

 of the paddle-fish, but this organ also serves the purpose of 

 scooping in the mud; and it may therefore readily be seen how 

 well it is equipped for living at the beds of those great rivers 

 in China, which appear locally to vary in their character from 

 clear and sparkling to ttirbid and muddy. 



This suggestive note claims to be no more than a hypo- 

 thesis, but the idea seemed to commend itself to Dr. Garman, 

 the ichthyologist of the Cambridge, Mass., University, and to 

 Dr. Hussakof, the palaeontologist of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York, to whom I mentioned it; and these 

 gentlemen seemed to share my opinion that there is no saying 

 what deep lake dredging, carried on after the^manner of deep 

 sea dredging, which has been so prolific in what it has yielded, 

 might bring to light concerning the paddle-fish which other- 

 wise must remain unknown. 



