S5 



weight of thirty pounds, and affording a delicate food. It is aK 

 so one of the most common, being found all over the Ohio^ 

 and even the Monongahela and Alleghany, as also in the Mis- 

 sissippi, Tennessee, Cumberland, Kentucky, Wabash, Miami, 

 &c. and all the large tributary streams: where it is permanent, 

 since it is found at all seasons except in winter. In Pittsburgh it 

 appears again in February. It feeds on many species of fishes, 

 Suckers,Catfiahes, Sunfishes,&c. but principally on the muscles, 

 or various species of the bivalve genus Unio^ so common in the 

 Ohio, whose thick shells it is enabled to crush by means of its 

 large throar leeth. The structme of those teeth is very singu- 

 lar and peculiar, they are placed like paving stones on the flat 

 bone of the lower throat, in great numbers and of different siz- 

 es; the largest, which are as big as a man's nails, are always in 

 the centre; they are inverted in faint alveoles, but not at all con- 

 nected with the bone; their shape is ciix:ular and flattened, 

 the inside always hollow, with a round hole beneath: in the 

 young fishes they are rather convex above and evidently radia- 

 ted and mamillar; while in the old fishes they become smooth, 

 truncate, and shining white. These teeth and their bone are 

 common in many museums, where they are erroneously called 

 teeth of the Buffalo-fish or of a Cat-fish. I was deceived sa 

 far by this mistake and by the repeated assertions of several 

 persons, as to ascribe those teeth to the Buffalo -fish, which t 

 have since found to be a real CatostQ?nus; this error I now cor- 

 rect with pleasure. 



A remarkable peculiarity of this fish consists in the strange 

 grunting noise, which it produces, and from which I have de- 

 rived its specific name. It is intermediate between the dumb 

 grunt of a hog and the single croaking noise ol the bull frog* 

 that grunt is only repeated at intervals and not in quick succes- 

 sion* Every navigator of the Ohio is well acquainted with it, 

 as they often come under the boats to enjoy their shade in sum- 

 mer and frequently make their noise. Another peculiarity of 

 t'his fish, is the habit which it has of producing large bubbles 

 in quick succession, while digging through the mud or sand o 

 fhe river, in search of the Muscles or Unios. 



It has a small head, sloping and compressed all the way from 



