288 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
At Louisville I did not hear the names drum, sheepshead, or gaspergou, by which 
this interesting species is usually known. It is there generally called the white perch 
or yellow perch. Among the common names which Rafinesque heard applied to 
this fish along the Ohio he mentions white perch, white pearch, buffalo perch, 
grunting perch, bubbling perch, bubbler, and mussel-eater. He further says that— 
“Tt is one of the largest and best found in the Ohio, reaching sometimes to a length 
of 3 feet and a weight of 30 pounds, and affording a delicate food. It is also one of 
the most common, being found all over the Ohio and even in the Monongahela and 
Allegheny, as also in the Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland, Kentucky, Wabash 
Miami, etc., and all the large tributary streams, where it is permanent, since it is 
found at all seasons except in winter. In Pittsburg it appears againin February. It 
feeds on many species of fishes—suckers, cat-fishes, sun-fishes, ete., but principally on 
the mussels, or various species of the bivalve genus Unio, so common in the Ohio, 
whose thick shells it is enab’ed to crush by means of its large throat teeth. 
“The structure of those teeth is very singular and peculiar; they are placed like 
paving stones on the flat bone of the lower throat, in great numbers and of different 
sizes; the largest, which are as big as a man’s nails, are always in the center; they are 
inverted in faint alveoles, but not at all connected with the bone. Their shape is 
circular and flattened, the inside always hollow, with a round hole beneath. In the 
young fishes they are rather convex above and evidently radiated and mammillar, 
while in the old fishes they become smooth, truncate, and shining white. 
“A remarkable peculiarity of this fish consists in the strange grunting noise which 
it produces, and from which I derived its specific name. It is intermediate between 
the dumb grunt of a hog and the single croaking noise of the bullfrog. The grunt 
is only repeated at intervals and not in quick succession. Every navigator of the 
Ohio is well acquainted with it, as they often come under the boats to enjoy their 
shade in summer, and frequently make their noise. 
‘Another peculiarity of this fish is the habit which it has of producing large 
bubbles in quick succession while digging through the mud or sand of the river in 
* * This fish is either taken in the seine or with the 
hook and line; it bites easily, and affords fine sport to the fishermen. It spawns 
in the spring, and lays a great quantity of eggs.” 
search of mussels or unios. 
The otoliths or ear stones of this fish are unusually well developed, and are famil- 
iar to the boys along the Ohio as “lucky stones.”’ 
