The Ganoids 35 
The family of Amiide contains a single recent species, 
Amia calva, the only living member of the order Halecomor phi. 
The bowfin, or grindle, is a remarkable fish abounding in the 
lakes and swamps of the Mississippi Valley, the Great Lake 
region, and southward to Virginia, where it is known by the 
imposing but unexplained title of John A. Grindle. In the 
Great Lakes it is usually called “dogfish,” because even the 
dogs will not eat it, and “lawyer,” because, according to Dr. 
Kirtland, “it will bite at anything and is good for nothing 
when caught.” 
The bowfin reaches a length of two and one half feet, the 
male being smaller than the female and marked by an ocellated 
black spot on the tail. Both sexes are dark mottled green in 
Fig. 25.—Bowfin (female), Amia calva Linneus. Lake Michigan. 
color. The flesh of the species is very watery, pasty, much 
of the substance evaporating when exposed to the air. It is 
ill-flavored, and is not often used as food. The species is 
very voracious and extremely tenacious of life. Its well-devel- 
oped lung enables it to breathe even when out of the water, and 
it will live in the air longer than any other fish of American 
waters, longer even than the horned pout (Ameziurus) or the 
mud-minnow (Umbra). As a game fish the grindle is one of 
the very best, if the angler does not care for the flesh of what he 
catches, it being one of the hardest fighters that ever took the hook. 
‘The Amiide retain many of the Ganoid characters, though 
approaching more nearly than any other of the Ganoids to the 
modern herring tribe. For this reason the name Halecomorphi 
(shad-formed) was given to this order by Professor Cope. The 
gular plate found in Amia and other Ganoids reappears in 
the herring-like family of Elopide, which includes the tarpon 
and the ten-pounder. 
