THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 271 



II. Lake Catfish (Ameiurus lacustris Walbaum). 



Ictalunts nigricans JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., 108, 1883. 

 Pimelodus nigricans DEKAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 180, pi. 52, fig. 170, 1842. 

 Ameiurus lacustris JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., I, 137, 1896. 



This is the Great Fork-tailed Cat, Florida Cat, Flannel-mouth Cat, and Great 

 Blue Cat of various writers. It is also called Mud Cat in the St. John's River, Fla. 

 The species is highly variable, as we would suppose from its wide distribution. 



In 1879, I )r f- Spencer F. Baird received from Dr. Steedman of St. Louis, a 

 Mississippi River Catfish weighing 150 pounds and measuring 5 feet in length. The 

 writer described this fish as a new species related to the Great Black Catfish of the 

 Mississippi Valley, Ainciunts nigricans. At the present time it is somewhat 

 doubtful whether or not this is merely an overgrown individual of the species under 

 consideration and the matter must remain in doubt till smaller examples of 

 A meiurus ponderosus have been obtained. 



LAKE CATFISH. 



The Great Fork-tailed Cat is a native of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, and in 

 the Southern States its range extends southward to Florida ; northward it ranges 

 to Ontario. 



This Catfish reaches a weight of 100 pounds or more, and, if it includes the giant 

 form above referred to, we may place the maximum weight at more than 150 

 pounds. Dr. Steedman was informed by an old fisherman that the heaviest one he 

 had ever seen weighed 198 pounds, but it is doubtful that such large individuals are 

 to be taken at the present time. In Lake Erie this species usually weighs from 5 

 to 15 pounds, and the largest specimens reach 40 pounds. 



The habits of this fish are presumably about the same as those of other species 

 of the family. On account of the great size of the fish it naturally prefers lakes and 

 large rivers. It is a bottom feeder and will take almost any kind of bait. This 

 species is wonderfully tenacious of life. It spawns in the spring and protects its 



