Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 625 



the ice is necessarily still-fishing and the fishermen are much an- 

 noyed by the water-dogs 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. While this attracts predaceous 

 fish it serves also to attract the troublesome Necturus. 



Although the water-dog is entirely harmless, fishermen scarcely 

 without exception firmly believe it to be poisonous and are in 

 mortal fear of its bite. So strong is this fear that when a fisher- 

 man finds a water-dog 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 thrashes 

 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 water-dog have not been fully 

 studied by us, though a number of interesting observations were 

 made. Several nests were found and the eggs and young seen at 

 different times. The breeding season is in the spring. A nest was 

 found June 12, 1901. It was under a submerged board in shallow 

 water at Long Point. The eggs, which were not numerous, were 

 about the size and color of yellow peas, and each was fastened to 

 the board above by a small gelatinous cord. One of the parents 

 remained near the nest, apparently watching it. The eggs, how- 

 ever, disappeared one by one, probably taken by crawfishes. Ap- 

 parently none of these eggs remained to hatch and we were unable 

 to determine the period of incubation. 



In our observations of these animals we were struck by the fre- 

 quency with which they were found dead in pairs. We are unable 

 to say what significance, if any, lies in the observation that these 

 animals are often found dead in pairs; it is probably a mere coin- 

 cidence. The condition of the examples found dead was such as 

 to make it difficult if not impossible to determine the sex and the 

 cause of their dying; nor could their stomach contents be satis- 

 factorily examined. There seems to be a brief period of unusual 

 mortality among them early in the spring when considerable num- 

 bers may be found dead along the shore ; a phenomenon analogous 



