MUD-MINNOW, or DOGFISH, one of the smaller fresh-water carnivorous fishes of the pike family, the Esocidae and the genus Umbra related to the Alaskan blackfish (DaIlia). It lives in muddy bayous, and among weeds at the bottom of clear but sluggish streams, often burrowing in loose mud. There are two North American species: Umbra limi of the interior, and U. pygma•a of the eastern coast; and one in Austria. Such a distribution increases the probability that this is of °an archaic type, characteristic of some earlier fish-fauna?' The mud-minnows reach a length of about four inches and are valued as live bait, since they will long endure with vigor impale ment on the hook.
or a mem ber of the Proteidee (q.v.). In this country usually Necturus maculates, a large newt com mon in the eastern Mississippi Basin. For its development and metamorphoses, see EMBRY OLOGY.
(Dorosoina cepedianum), the hickory or gizzard shad. This fish grows to a length of about 15 inches, is silvery blue in color, and occurs throughout the Mississippi Valley and in great abundance from Cape Cod to Mexico.
a minute tropical fish of the goby family and genus Periophthalmus, which is accustomed to go ashore and skip about the space between tide-marks, exploring the rocks, roots of trees, etc., for food, and skipping about like grasshoppers. Some curious qualities distinguish these little creatures, which are found from West Africa to Japan, and make them highly interesting to naturalists. Consult Day's 'Fishes of India' (1878) and other works on the natural history of the Eastern seas.
or any fresh-water turtle usually found in muddy places. In the United States, the ordinary mud turtle is Cinosternon pennsylvanicum, which has a grayish-brown smooth shell, and a dark colored head, with light dots. See BOX-TURTLE.
one of the many kinds of solitary wasps which fabricate out of wet clay cell-like receptacles, variously shaped and placed, in which to store their eggs and the provision for the larva;. See WASP.