138 



VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



lines, those below the lateral line interrupted posteriorly; rays of dorsal 

 fins IX-I, 12; anal III, 9 or 10; scales 7-50 to 54-11: lower Mississippi 

 Valley, northward to the Ohio River and to central Indiana and 

 Illinois; westward to the Kansas River; common towards the south 

 in large rivers and lakes. 



M. americana (Gmelin). White perch. Length 400 mm.; head 3; 

 depth 3; color dark olivaceous; sides silvery, usually with faint paler 

 streaks; rays of dorsal fins IX-I, 12; anal III, 8 or 9; scales 8-50 to 

 55-12: Atlantic Ocean; abundant in brackish pools and in river mouths, 

 also often in fresh water ponds, from Nova Scotia to South Carolina. 



Fig. 62. — Aplodinolus grunniens {from Jordan ir Evermann) . 



Family 6. Sciaenidae. — The drums. Body compressed, more or 

 less elongate; back elevated; scales ctenoid; lateral line continuous 

 and extending on to the tail fin; premaxillaries protractile; dorsal fin 

 single, deeply notched or separated into two fins; air bladder large and 

 often complex, enabling the fish to make drumming sounds; no teeth 

 on the palatines, vomer, pterygoids or tongue; branchiostegals 7: 

 about 30 genera and 150 species, mostly in warm seas; a few in fresh 

 water, i in the United States. 



Aplodinotus Rafinesque. With the characters of the family: 

 I species. 



A. grunniens Raf. Sheephead (Fig. 62). Length up to 1,100 mm.; 

 weight up to 50 lbs.; head t,.t,; depth 2.75; color silvery; dusky above; 

 rays of dorsal fins IX-I, 25 to 30; anal II, 7; scales 9-55-13; lower 

 pharyngeals very large, with blunt teeth; head scaly: Great Lakes 

 to Alabama and Texas, between the Alleghenies and the Great Plains; 

 common in large streams and lakes; an inferior food fish in the north, 

 but not in the south. 



