LAMPREYS AND FISHES OF INDIANA. 159 



(-?, '77, 46). Mr. Lewis H. McCormick reports (iJ) a single specimen 

 having been taken in Lake Erie. Eigenmann reports having taken it in 

 Lake Manitou (j^^, '93, 78). 



There is no danger of confounding this fish with anything else. It 

 needs only to be seen that it may be recognized. It appears to be abun- 

 dant in the larger streams of our State. Its large size and its freedom 

 from bones should make it a desirable fish, but its flesh is said to be 

 tough. Prof. Forbes states that it is quite generally dressed for market 

 and sold at the same rate as cat-fish. The paddle of this fish appears to 

 be employed in stirring up the vegetation of the streams in which it 

 lives, in order that it may obtain its food. Prof. S. A. Forbes (i^, No. 

 2, 82) has given us the results of his observations on its habits : 



"The alimentary canal of each of the five specimens examined was 

 found full of a brownish, half-fluid mass, which, when placed under the 

 microscope, was seen to be made up chiefly (in one case almost wholly) 

 of countless myriads of entomostraca, of nearly every form known to 

 occur in our waters, including many that have been seen as yet nowhere 

 but in the stomachs of these fishes. Mixed with these, in varying pro- 

 portion, were several undetermined and probably undescribed species of 

 water worms (Annulata), most of them belonging to the family Ndididce. 

 Sometimes as much as a fourth of the mass was composed of vegetable 

 matter — largely algje, but included fragments of all the aquatic plants 

 known by me to occur in the waters of the Illinois, except Ceratophyllmn. 

 Occasionally leeches (Clepsine), water beetles, a few larvae of Diptera 

 and Ephemera and water bugs were noticed." 



Prof Forbes found extremely little mud mixed with the stomach con- 

 tents. He believes that the close set and slender gill-rakers form a filter- 

 ing apparatus which permits the river silt to pass out, while it retains 

 even the smallest crustaceans. Of the breeding habits of this remark- 

 able fish nothing appears to be known. 



Order 2. GLANIOSTOMI. 



THE STURGEONS. 



Maxillary present. Opercular apparatus with opercular and inter- 

 opercular bones. H^ad produced forw^ard into a flat or subconical snout. 

 Body provided with rows of bony bucklers. Mouth underneath the 

 snout and transverse ; capable of being protruded downward ; toothless. 

 Includes a number of large fishes, some of which inhabit the northern 

 seas and ascend rivers in order to spawn, while others reside per- 

 manently in European and American rivers. 



