194 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



County {16, 94) and in Carroll County {.23, '88, 44). It is doubtless to 

 be found throughout the Wabash, and probably in the Ohio along our 

 whole border. Prof. Forbes found this species to take almost identically 

 the same kinds of food as /. cyprinella, molLusks, entomostraca, crust- 

 aceans, and aquatic insects. It is a fish of some importance as an 

 article of food, but it is not regarded as a first-class fish. 



ICTIOBUS BUBALUS (Raf.). 



Sucker-mouthed Buffalo. 



Jordan and Gilbert, 1882, 8, 114; Jordan, 1884, 12, 615, pi. 226. 



Body deep and compressed, the back in front of the dorsal fin high 

 and arched ; depth in the length, two and one-half to three ; head large 

 and thick, its length in length of head and body, three and one-half to 

 three and three-fourths times; snout rounded, projecting beyond the 

 mouth, which is thus rendered somewhat inferior in position, and pro- 

 tractile downward ; length of snout, one-fourth that of the head. Eye 

 variable in size, four and one-half to six times' in head. Opercles large 

 and strongly striated. Rays of dorsal, twenty-six to twenty-nine, the 

 longest much more than one-half the length of the base of the fin. 

 Scales, 8-38-6. Color above, brownish olive, growing paler below. Fins 

 dark. May reach a length of thirty inches and a weight of fifteen or 

 more pounds. Streams of the Mississippi Valley. New Harmony, Evans- 

 ville and Vincennes (^, '88, 162) ; Greene County {23, '84, 207) ; Lower 

 Wabash River (1, '77, 45, 72); Carroll County (23, '88, 44); Vigo 

 County (16, 94). 



This species, with the other buffalo fishes, forms a considerable part of 

 the fish food used by people living along the larger streams. The flesh 

 is not of a fine quality, and there are many bones. Forbes (14, '88, 

 448) states that about one-fifth of the food of this species consists of 

 vegetation, duckweed, etc. The remainder was of animal origin, equally 

 divided among mollusks, crustaceans and insects. The crustaceans be- 

 longed, to a considerable extent, to the smallest species. 



\ 

 ICTIOBUS CARPIO (Raf.). 



Carp Sucker. 



Jordan and Gilbert, 1882, 8, 883; Carpiodes carpio, Jordan and Gil- 

 bert, op. cit. 118. 



Body moderately deep and compressed ; the back arched in front of 

 the dorsal fin. Depth in the length close to three times. Head rela- 

 tively small ; its length, in length of head and body, four to four and two- 

 thirds times. Space between the eyes convex. Opercles coarsely striated. 



