CARP , CE AND MINNOIV. 
435 
inhabits all bodies of water, large and small, from New England to Colo¬ 
rado. In the great lakes it reaches a length of two feet or more. In small 
brooks it is mature at eight or ten inches. It varies much in size, color 
and form in the different streams. It bites freely, and is one of the fishes 
with which the unambitious brook angler is well contented. When taken 
out of clear water, properly cared for and well washed, it is an excellent- 
~pan-fish, like most of its kind. 
All the lakes and rivers of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific slope, 
says Jordan, are inhabited by species of this genus, or of the allied 
•9 
genera Chcismistes and Pantosteus. In Utah Lake, said to be the “ greatest 
Sucker-pond in the world,” are found Catostomus fecundus and ardens , 
Chcismistes liorus and Pantosteusplatyrhynchus , all in abundance. In Lake 
Tahoe Catostomus tahoensis; in the Sacramento C. occidentalis; in the 
Columbia C. macrocliilus; in Klamath Lake Chasmistes luxatus and Ch. 
brevirostris, abound, while in the great lakes and all waters thence to 
Alaska and Arctic Ocean C. longirostris is an important food-fish. 
The “ Stone-roller,” “Hog Sucker,” “Stone Toter ” or “Hammer¬ 
head Sucker,” Catostomus nigricans , abounds in most waters from the great 
lakes southward. The Stone-roller is extremely abundant in every run¬ 
ning stream in the North and West, where its singular, almost comical form 
is familiar to every school-boy. It delights in rapids and shoals, preferring 
cold and clear water. Its powerful pectorals render it a swifter swimmer 
than any other of its family. Its habit is to rest motionless on the bot¬ 
tom, where its mottled colors render it difficult to distinguish from the 
stones among which it lies. When disturbed it darts away very quickly, 
after the manner of the etheostomoids. They often go in small schools. 
