502 PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



the stomach contents of a number of waterdogs at Sandusky and elsewhere 

 and found fish-eggs present in many cases. 



While writing this account (August, 1907), a specimen of waterdog was 

 received by the Bureau from a lake near Irwin, Colorado. Its stomach con- 

 tained 6 or 8 examples of Gamma rus (a small crustacean) and several small 

 bits of rotten wood, the latter taken incidentally along with other food. 



Garman* states that the waterdog subsists on crustaceans, insects and 

 mollusks. 



It is undoubtedly a bottom feeder, and its habit of walking or crawUng 

 about over the bottom makes the finding of fish-nests and the destruction of 

 the eggs a particularly easy matter. The evidence, therefore, would seem to 

 be conclusive that the waterdog is whoUj' carnivorous in its habits; that its 

 food consists chiefly of smaU fish, and in season, of fish eggs, along with a 

 smaller proportion of crustaceans, mollusks, insect larvae, etc. 



Waterdogs may be caught quite readily in any season on hooks baited 

 with minnows, crawfish, liver, bits of meat, or almost anj^ animal matter. 

 Set-lines placed by us for experimental purposes at various depths and places 

 in the lake usually yielded pt least one waterdog every time examined. When 

 the hooks Avere set at a greater depth than '.io or 40 feet, however, they rarely 

 caught any. On hooks set in Lost Lake for catfish and dogfish, waterdogs 

 were often taken. 



Anglers often catch them while still-fishing in the spring, summer and 

 fall, but it is during ice-fishing in the Asinter that they are most troublesome 

 and most frequently taken. All fishing through the ice is necessarily still 

 fishing and the fishermen are much anno3-ed by the waterdogs stealing the 

 bait from their hooks as well as being caught thereon. Their abundance in 

 the vicinity of ice-fishing is doubtless increased to some extent by the practice 

 of the fishermen of throwing dead minnows from their minnow buckets 

 through the ice holes into the lake, ^\^lile this attracts predaceous fish it 

 serves also to attract the troublesome Nedurus. 



Although the waterdog is entirely harmless, fishermen scarcely Avithout 

 exception firmlj' believe it to be poisonous and are in mortal fear of its bite. 

 So strong is this fear that when a fisherman finds a waterdog on his hook he 

 never tries to dislodge the hook while the animal is alive but either cuts the 

 line and lets it escape or mashes its head and then removes it from the hook 

 with many misgivings as to whether it is safe to remove even a dead water- 

 dog from the hook. 



When caught on the hook this animal squirms and tlu-ashes about a good 

 deal at first but soon becomes quiet and remains so until lifted out of the 

 water when it again becomes very active, its squirming contortions, slimy 

 touch and repulsive appearance all contributing to the fisherman's dread. 



The breeding habits of the waterdog have not been fuUj' studied by us, 



*A synopsis of the Reptiles and Amphibians of Illinois. Bull. 111. State Lab. Nat. 

 Hist.. Vol. Ill, Art. XIII, p. 38.3, 1891. 



