324 GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



and the waters that form the sources of the Fox River in Wiscon- 

 sin, and in Lake Tippecanoe, in Indiana. The cisco is a very sym- 

 melrical fish, white in flesh, and fine in flavor ; their size remarka- 

 bly uniform, ranging from six to ten ounces in weight, and averag- 

 ing about eight. They make their appearance in June, generally 

 about the tenth, never earUer than the first, and their " run " lasts 

 only about a week. At this time they take a fly ravenously, and 

 afford fine sport to thousands of people who annually come from 

 the surrounding country to catch them. Hundreds of people tent 

 on the shore of the lake, and scores of camp-fires are seen on all 

 sides in the calm summer nights. Very light tackle is required by 

 the angler. Although it is said that they will take bait of any kind, 

 experiments go to show tbey can only be taken with the natural 

 May fly, myriads of which are found on the grass and bushes. 



AMIID^. 



Grjndle, Bowfin, John A., Dc^:fish, Mudfish, or Lake Lawyer. — Amia caiva. 



Found in great numbers in western inland waters, and identical 

 with Amia occidentalis, of Vermont. They are very abundant in 

 Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Pepin. Back greenish black ; 

 top of head, do ; gill covers, yellowish green and oUve ; sides dark 

 ohve, fading to yellowish white on the beUy ; dorsal fin (forty-seven 

 rays, soft) and caudal (twenty rays) dark oUve ; pectoral, ventral 

 and anal fins, lighter ; a jet black oval spot encircled by a narrow 

 Dorder of golden yellow at base of upper half of dorsal ; branchi- 

 ostegous rays, eleven ; a range one-half inch wide on upper jaw of 

 smallish, slightly curved, sharp teeth ; on lower jaw a row of simi- 

 lar teeth, behind which is a band of very small ones. Grows from 

 five to twenty pounds in weight. It belongs to the order of Gan~ 

 aids, and is in scales, fins, and the power of tail allied to the extinct 

 fishes of an older world, and it is curious that most of these repre- 

 sentatives of the earlier periods are found only in Western waters 

 — ^the garfish, the paddlefish, and the mudfish. 



They take frogs, minnows, and sometimes the spoon. Their 

 habitat is deep \vater where they drive everything before them. 



