SEA DRUM AND LAKE DRUM. 143 
rus lentiginosus, is heard along the Mississippi River. Southwestward, in 
Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, it is always known as the ‘‘ Gaspergou.’’* 
These names, ‘‘ Croaker,’’ ‘‘ Drum,’’ ‘‘ Thunder-pumper,’’ etc., refer to 
the croaking or grunting noise made by this species in common with most 
Scienoids. This noise is thought to be made in the air-bladder by forc- 
ing the air from one compartment to another. Another name used in the 
southwest is ‘‘ Jewel-head.’’ 
“This species,’’ writes Jordan, ‘‘is very abundant in all large bodies 
of water throughout the Western States, from the Great Lakes to the 
Rio Grande. It seldom enters small streams. It feeds largely upon crus- 
taceans and mollusks, but sometimes swallows other fishes. It is rather a 
bottom fish than otherwise. Its value as a food-fish depends on the water 
and food, and, unlike most fishes, its quality seems to improve to the 
southward. Although from its size and abundance it becomes an import- 
ant market fish, it cannot at best be considered one of high quality. Its 
flesh is tough and coarse in fiber, and often of a disagreeable shark-like 
odor, particularly in the Great Lakes, where it is never eaten. The flesh 
of partly grown specimens is better than that of the adult. It reaches a 
length of four feet and a weight of forty to sixty pounds. Those usually 
seen in market are much smaller. Nothing is known concerning its 
breeding habits. 
The ear bones or otholiths of the Lake Drum are large and have a tex- 
ture like ivory. They are often carried as amulets by the negroes of the 
South, and are also prized by boys in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the West, 
swho call them ‘lucky stones,’’ perhaps in allusion to the fact that they 
are marked by a figure which resembles the letter L. The name ‘ Jewel- 
head ’’ refers, of course, to these bones, and Jordan’s generic name Eu/y- 
chelithus, proposed fora form of the Lake Drum, supposed to inhabit Lake 
Huron, is a translation of the words ‘‘lucky stone.’’ The Lake Huron 
form is in all probability identical with that of the other lakes, and it is 
hoped that the Indian name ‘‘ Maleshaganay’’ may be preserved in con- 
nection with these lacustrine sciznoids. 
*Mr. Norman Walker, in a recent paper on ‘‘ Outdoor Life in Louisiana,’’ published in Owing, informs 
us that ‘‘gaspergou”’ is an Indian word, meaning ‘‘fish,’’ and is applied by Louisianians to anything fishy 
from the sheepshead to the mudsucker. 
