764 FISHES POLYODONTID^. 



3. PoLYODON FOLIUM Lacepede. 



Paddle Fish; Spoon-bill; Shovel Fish ; Bill Fish ; Duek-billed 



Cat. 



Polyodon feuille ( folium), Lacepede (1798), Hist. Nat. des Poiss., i, 403. 



Polyodon folium, Kirtland, Boat. Jonrn. Nat. Hiht., iv, 21. — Gunthbr, Cat. Fishes, Brit. 



Mu8 , viii, 346.— Jordan (1678), Man. Vert. E. U. S.. 2d. Ed,, 344 (and of authors 



generally). 

 Spatularia reticulata, Shaw (1844), Gen. Zool., v, 362 (and of some authors). 

 Flatirosira edentida, LeSueur (1818), Jonrn. Acad. Nat. Soi. Phila., i, 223 (based on old 



and toothless specimens). — Kirtland, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist., v. 22. 

 Planirostra s^ateia, Owen, Osteo). Catal., i, 83. 



Body moderately elongated, the disproportionately large head and long snout form- 

 ing nearly half of the total length, the prolonged opercular ilap extending about to the 

 ventrals ; spatula largely developed, nearly as broad as the head, forming more than 

 one third of the total length in the young, and about one-fourth in the adult ; fins 

 large, all more or lees falcate ; color grayish, pale below. D., 55 to €0. A., 56. Length, 

 2 to 6 feet. 



Habitat, entire Mississippi Valley. Abundant in the larger streams, seldom enter- 

 ing small ones. 



Diagnosis. — This species is known at once by the broad leaf like pro- 

 jection of the snout. It bears little resemblance to any other American 

 fish. 



Habits. — This large fish abounds in the lower parts of the Ohio River 

 and its principal tributaries, whence it is often taken in nets, but its 

 tough shark-like flesh is but little esteemed. 



The character of its food has been first made known by Prof. S. A. 

 Forbes (Bull. Ills. Lab. Nat. Hist., 2., 82), who remarks : 



" This is by far the most remarkable fish in our rivers, and is not less remarkable in its 

 food than in its struotuie. By the fishermen it is supposed to live on the mud and slimo of 

 the river bottom. The alimentary canal of each of the five specimens examined was found 

 full of a brownish,, half fluid mass, which, when placed under the microscope, was seen to 

 be made up chiefly (in one case almost wholly) of countless myriads of entomostraca, of 

 nearly every form known to occur in our waters, including many that have been seen as 

 yet nowhere bat in the stomachs of these fishes. Mixed with these, in varying proportion, 

 were several undetermined and probably nndesciibed species of water -wotuib (Annulata), 

 most of them belonging to the family Naididce. Sometimes as much as a fourth of the 

 mass was composed of vegetable matter — largely algsa, but included fragments of all the 

 aquatic plants known by me to occur in the waters of the Illinois, except Ceratophyllum. 

 Occasional leeches {Clepaine), water bottles (Coptoiomus interrogatus, etc.), a few larvte of 

 Dipiera and EpJiemercB and water bugs {Corixa) were noticed. Among the Crustacea 

 several specimens of the remarkable Leptodora hyalina ware found. 



" I have not had time for anything more than a general examination of the mass of 

 matter presented— sometimes more than a pint from a single fish — and cannol., there- 

 fore, give a list of the species. Curiously, very little mud was miied with the food. 



