CHAPTER IX
THE DRUM FAMILY (CONTINUED)
(Sciænidæ)
The most conspicuous and characteristic features by which the members of this family may be known were given in the preceding chapter, where the brackish-water and salt-water species were described. There is but one species found in fresh water, a description of which follows.
Aplodinotus grunniens. The Fresh-water Drum. Body oblong, much elevated, and compressed; profile long and steep; snout blunt; head 3-1/3; depth 2-3/4; eye moderate; D. X, 30; A. II, 7; scales 9-55-13; mouth small, low, and horizontal, lower jaw included; teeth in villiform bands, pharyngeals with coarse, blunt, paved teeth; preopercle slightly serrate; the dorsal fins somewhat connected; scaly sheaths at base of spiny portion of dorsal and anal fins; second anal spine very large; gill-rakers short, 6 + 14; pyloric cœca 7; caudal fin double truncate.
THE FRESH-WATER DRUMFISH
(Aplodinotus grunniens)
This well-known fish of the Middle West is also known as lake-sheepshead on the Great Lakes, white-perch on the Ohio River, gaspergou in Louisiana, and as bubbler, croaker, thunder-pumper, and other names in various sections of the country. It was first described by Rafinesque, in 1819, from the Ohio River. He named it grunniens, meaning "grunting," from the grunting sound it makes, in common with other members of the drum family, when taken from the water. It inhabits the Great Lakes and other smaller lakes in the vicinity, extending along the Mississippi Valley to Louisiana. Texas, and Mexico.
The fresh-water drum is somewhat elliptical in outline, with quite a hump over the shoulders, with a depth of about one-third of its length, while its head constitutes more than a fourth of the length of the body. The single dorsal fin has the appearance of two. The ear-bones (otoliths) are quite large and resemble porcelain in their peculiar whiteness, and have a semblance of the letter "L" seemingly cut on them. From this circumstance they are known as "lucky-stones," and are often carried by boys as pocket-pieces.
It is of a grayish silvery hue, dark on the back, fading to white on the belly. In the lakes of the North it has several oblique dusky streaks or bands, resembling in a minor degree those of the sheepshead of the coastwise streams and bays. In southern waters the streaks are not so apparent, and it is called white-perch, owing to its silvery appearance. It is a bottom fish, feeding mostly on mollusks, which it crushes with the blunt teeth of the throat. It also feeds on small fishes, crawfish, and other small organisms. Its spawning habits are unknown, but it probably spawns in the spring and summer.