The Buffalo Fishes 



nutritious, is coarse and not highly flavoured. This species is 

 also known as the red-mouthed buffalo, and big-mouthed buffalo. 



Head 3^^; depth 2^ to 3^; D. 27 to 29; A. 9; V. 10; scales 

 7-37 to 41-6. Body stout, moderately compressed, the outline 

 somewhat elliptical, but the back rather more curved than the 

 belly; opercular apparatus very strong, the opercle itself nearly 

 half length of head. Colour, dull brownish-olive, not silvery; fins 

 dusky. 



Black Buffalo; Mongrel Buffalo 



Ictiobiis tirus (Agassiz) 



This species is close to the common buffalo, from which it 

 can be distinguished by its smaller, more oblique mouth, and its 

 much darker colour. It occurs throughout the Mississippi Valley 

 in the larger streams, it being most abundant in those of the 

 South, where it is said to spawn in March and April. It reaches 

 a weight of 5 to 35 pounds, and resembles the preceding species 

 in habits and food value. In Louisiana it is sometimes called 

 "chopper." 



Head very stout, about 4 in length, strongly convex; depth 

 3 to 3^; eye about equal to snout, 5^ in head; D. 30; A. 10; 

 scales 8-41-7. Body much less elevated and less compressed, the 

 head thicker, larger and less pointed, and the eye much smaller 

 than in the small-mouthed buffalo; back not at all carinated; 

 axis of body above ventrals about at the lateral line, and but 

 little farther from the dorsal outline than from the ventral; mouth 

 large, well forward, considerably oblique, approaching that of the 

 common buffalo; mandible longer than the eye; premaxilliaries 

 somewhat below the suborbital; dorsal fin low and less rapidly 

 shortened than in the next species, the longest ray scarcely half 

 as long as base of fin; anal rounded, its rays not rapidly 

 shortened, the middle ones not much shorter than the longest. 

 Colour, very dark, the fins almost black. 



Small-mouthed Buffalo; White Buffalo 



Ictiobus bubalus (Rafinesque) 



This is the most abundant and best known of all the 

 buffalo fishes. It reaches a weight of 35 pounds or more and 



40 



