Aplodinotus 



through Texas to the mouth of the Rio Grande. It has recently been 

 found by us in the Rio Usumacinta, in Tabasco, southern Mexico. 



It is most abundant in the Great Lakes and in the lowland streams 

 of Louisiana and Texas. A great number of vernacular names have 

 been bestowed upon this interesting fish. In the Great Lakes it is the 

 sheepshead or freshwater drum; in the lakes of northern Indiana it is 

 called crocus, evidently a corruption of croaker; in the Ohio it is the 

 white perch, gray perch, or simply perch; farther south it is drum 

 or thunder-pumper; and in Louisiana, gaspergou. 



It is a bottom fish, feeding chiefly upon crustaceans and mollusks. 

 Northward the freshwater drum is not greatly valued as a food-fish, 

 but in the South it is highly esteemed. Ordinarily we have found the 

 flesh tough and coarse in fibre, and often with a disagreeable shark- 

 like odour. 



The gaspergou is one of our largest freshwater fishes, as it reaches 

 a weight of 50 to 60 pounds and a length of 4 feet. 



Colour, grayish silvery, dusky above, sometimes very dark; back 

 sometimes with oblique dusky streaks along the rows of scales. 



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