GEINDLE FISH. 777 



10. Amia calta Linnseus. 



Grindle Fish; Orindle; John A. Orindle ; Bow-fin; Dog:-flsh; 

 ]?Iud-fish; Brindle-flsh; Poissou de mCarais; L.awyer. 



ArriM calva, Linn^us (1758), Syst. NatnrsB,— Kirtland, Boat. Journ. Nat. Hist., iii, 479. 



Gtjnthek, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., viii, 325.— Jordan, Man. Vert. E. U. S., 2a Ed., 340. 

 Amia ocelUcauda, Richardson (1836), Fauna Bor.-Am., iii, 246, 1836 (adult female). 

 Amia occidentalis, DbKay (1848), New York Fanna, Fishes, 269, 1842 (adult female). 

 Amia ocelUcauda, occidentalis, marmorata, ornata, viridis, canina, leniiginosa, autaarulea, 



dnerea, and reticulata (1846), CuY. et Val., Hist. Nat. des Poiss., xix, 412-431, 1846. 

 Amia ornata, marmorata, ocelUcauda, thompsoni, canina, leniiginosa, oceidentalia, reticulata, 



piquotii, cinerea, subecerwlea, and viridis, August Dumbril, Hist. Nat. Des Poissons, 



1870. 



Description. — Dark olive or blackish above, nearly white below ; sides with traces 

 of greenish markings ; lower jaw and gular plate with ronnd blackish spots ; fins 

 mostly blackish; male fishes smaller than the females, marked by a roundish black 

 spot near the base of the caudal fin, above ; this spot is suironnded by a pale orange 

 oeellation ; this spot is wanting in the females ; depth of body from four to four and one 

 half times in its length ; length of head nearly four ; eye small, contained eight times 

 in head. Dorsal, about 46 ; anal, 11; lat. 1., 68. Length of male, 1^ feet ; female, 2 to 2i. 



Habitat, Great Lake region to Virginia, Florida, and Texas, very abundant in the 

 larger or more sluggish rivers, and in the bayous and lakes. 



Diagnosis. — Either as " Grindle" or " Dog-ftsh" this species is known to 

 every fisherman in the regions where it occurs. Prom all other Ohio 

 fishes it may be known by the presence of the broad plate between the 

 branches of the lower jaw. 



Habits. — This species occurs in Ohio, both in Lake Erie and in the 

 Ohio River, more abundantly in the lake, however, than in the rivers. 

 It is one of the most powerfal and most voracious of our fishes. It is 

 more tenacious of life than any other, living longer out of water 

 than any, even the species of Amiurus. I once kept a specimen alive, 

 out of water, in a warm room, for a whole afternoon, in order to make a 

 water-color sketch of it. Its lung-like air-bladder enables it to breathe 

 air, so long as its air passages are kept moist, and when out of water, it 

 dies only after the shrinkage of its gelatinous and pasty muscles due to 

 the evaporation of the water they contain. The susceptibility to evap- 

 oration of the fleshy parts is one of the peculiar characteristics of this 

 fish. The flesh is never used for food, and is said to be very disagreeably 

 flavored, even if it did not almost wholly disappear in the process of 

 frying. 



Concerning the " gamey " qualities of this fish, the following from a 

 correspondent of the Chicago Field (1878, p. 403), from Jackson, Miss., 

 may be interesting to anglers who are not exclusively pot- fishers : 



