310 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



caught with hook and line in this lake. The fish was about 14 

 inches long and weighed about 2 or 2.5 pounds. Mr. McGilliard 

 has for many years been familiar with this species in the Illinois 

 River and elsewhere, and his identification is entirely trustworthy. 



It is rather surprising that this fish has not been more fre- 

 quently reported from the lake. It is possible that the dam which 

 existed until recently in the Outlet of Lake Maxinkuckee has been 

 effective in keeping it out. It is not uncommon in the Wabash 

 River, at least as far up as Logansport, and it has also been re- 

 ported from Lake Manitou at Rochester, only about 10 miles east 

 of Lake Maxinkuckee, and from Tippecanoe Lake about 35 miles 

 northeast. 



Very large examples have been reported from Lake Manitou. 

 The largest is said to have been speared many years ago (sometime 

 in the fifties) by Wilson Newell, and it weighed 173 pounds. While 

 spearing bass from the shore in a little channel connecting Manitou 

 or Devils Lake and Clear Lake he saw the fish working its way 

 through the channel and struck it with his spear, leaving it fast in 

 the fish. The shaft fastened to the spear by a long cord becom- 

 ing detached, floated and indicated the course of the fish. Newell 

 followed the fish all day, finally exhausting and killing it. Another 

 weighing 163 pounds was shot in the same lake a few years later, 

 and still another, 7 feet 8 inches long and weighing 116 pounds, 

 was caught by Andrew Edwards in a gillnet about the middle of 

 May, 1890. It is said that this fish was a female and that "nearly 

 a wooden pail full of spawn was taken from it." One has been 

 recorded from Tippecanoe Lake which weighed 150 pounds. These 

 are the largest paddlefishes of which we have any trustworthy rec- 

 ord. 



The Spoonbill Cat is, of course, not a catfish at all, it being more 

 closely related to the sturgeons than to the catfishes. It is the only 

 American representative of the family to which it belongs ; indeed, 

 the family has but two known species, the present one and another 

 (Psephnriis gladius) which is known only from the fresh-waters of 

 China. The family is an old one which has been long upon the 

 earth. Because of its representing an ancient type, the Paddlefish 

 is of much interest to zoologists, and especially to embryologists, 

 though its embryology has never been fully worked out. The 

 young are rarely seen. 



According to Dr. George Wagner, who studied the habits of the 

 Spoonbill at Lake Pepin, this fish lives practically always near the 

 surface in deep water ; it feeds mainly during the night and early 

 in the morning, its food consisting entirely of plankton organisms. 



