GRINDLE FISH. V77 
10. Amira cALvA Linneus. 
Grindie Fish; Grimdle; Johm A. Grindle; Bow-fim; Dog-fish ; 
Mud-fish; Brindle=-fish; Poissom de Marais; Lawyer. 
Amia calva, LINNZUS (1758), Syst. Naturze.— KiRTLAND, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist., iii, 479. 
GUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., viii, 325.—JoRDAN, Man Vert. E. U. S., 2d Ed., 340. 
Amia ocellicauda, RICHARDSON (1836), Fauna Bor.-Am., ili, 246, 1836 (adult female). 
Amia occidentalis, DEKay (1848), New York Fauna, Fishes, 269, 1842 (adult female). 
Amia ocellicauda, occidentalis, marmorata, ornata, viridis, canina, lentiginosa, subcerulea, 
cinerea, and reticulata (1846), Cuv. et VAL., Hist. Nat. des Poiss., xix, 412-431, 1846. 
Amia ornata, marmorata, ocellicauda, thompsoni, canina, lentiginosa, occidentalis, reticulata, 
piquotit, cinerea, subcerulea, and viridis, AUGUST DUMERIL, 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 round 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 surrounded by a pale orange 
ocellation ; 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; aval, 11; lat. 1. 68. Length of male, 1} feet; female, 2 to 24. 
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 —Hither as “ Grindle”’ or “ Dog-fish” this species is known to 
every fisherman in the regions where it occurs. From 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 powerful 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 
watercolor 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, eyen 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: 
