1 84 The Nematognathi, or Catfishes 



and the bands of scaly travelers are sometimes so large that 

 the Indians who happen to meet them fill many baskets of the 

 prey thus placed in their hands. The Indians suppose that 

 the fish carry a supply of water with them, but they have no 

 special organs and can only do so by closing the gill-openings 

 or by retaining a little water between the plates of their bodies, 

 as Hancock supposes. The same naturalist adds that they 

 make regular nests, in which they cover up their eggs with 

 care and defend them, male and female uniting in this parental 

 duty until the eggs are hatched. The nest is constructed, at 

 the beginning of the rainy season, of leaves and is sometimes 

 placed in a hole scooped out of the beach." 



The Sisoridae. The Sisorida are small catfishes found in 

 swift mountain streams of northern India. In some of the 

 genera (Pseudecheneis) in swift streams a sucking-disk formed 

 of longitudinal plates of skin is formed on the breast. This 

 enables these fishes to resist the force of the water. In one 

 genus, Exostoma, plates of skin about the mouth serve the same 

 purpose. 



The Bunocephalida are South American catfishes with the 

 dorsal fin undeveloped and the top of the head rough. In 

 Platystacus (Aspredo), the eggs are carried on the belly of the 

 female, which is provided with spongy tentacles to which the 

 eggs are attached. After the breeding season the ventral sur- 

 face becomes again smooth. 



The Plotosidae. The Ploiosida are naked catfishes, largely 

 marine, found along the coasts of Asia. In these fishes the 

 second dorsal is very long. Plotosus anguillaris, the sea catfish 

 of Japan, is a small species striped with yellow and armed with 

 sharp pectoral spines which render it a very disagreeable object 

 to the fishermen. In sandy bays like that of Nagasaki it is 

 very abundant. Allied to this is the small Asiatic family of 

 Chacida. 



The Chlariidae. The Chlariida are eel-like, with a soft skele- 

 ton and a peculiar accessory gill. These abound in the swamps 

 and muddy streams of India, where some species reach a length 

 of six feet. One species, Chlarias magur, has been brought 

 by the Chinese to Hawaii, where it flourishes in the same 



