ameiurus — bullheads; horned pout 

 AMEIURUS NEBULOSUS (Lb Sueur) 



187 



SPECKLED BULLHEAD; COMMON BULLHEAD; BROWN BULLHEAD 



(Map LIV) 



Le Sueur, 1819, M£m. Mus., V, 149 (Pimelodus). 



J. & G., 104 (catus): M. V., 40. J. & E., I, 140; N., 50 (albidus, atrarius, vulgaris); 

 J., 66 and 67 (catus, xanthocephalus (?), marmoratus, vulgaris); F., 83 (Icta- 

 lurus nebulosus, part); F, F., II. 7, 460 (Ictalurus); L., 10. 



Body typically elongate, never more than moderately robust, rather 

 more compressed than in A. melas; depth from 3.5 to 4.3 in length, usually 

 nearly or a little more than 4; profile 

 long and almost straight, the shoulders 

 never prominent and no groove before 

 dorsal; skin thin, fitting closely over 

 top of head and nape, that of belly 

 consisting of a very thin and delicate 

 epidermal layer over a thick layer of 

 unpigmented connective tissue. Size 

 ranging larger than in the next species, 

 reaching 18 inches. Color variable, 

 usually a rather dark yellowish brown 

 faintly clouded, more strongly mottled 

 with darker in the nominal variety 

 marmoratus, sometimes nearly black; 

 under parts, including chin, breast, 

 and belly, pale gray, pinkish, or satiny 

 whitish; nasal and maxillary barbels 

 of same shade as top of head; lower 



barbels slaty to pinkish white, sometimes faintly marbled with darker; fin 

 membranes less strongly pigmented than in A. melas, the black on anal 

 typically densest in the membranes near their free margin, in spots which 

 form a more or less faint longitudinal bar near base of fin, or in faint mottlings 

 irregularly distributed on both membranes and rays; in pale unmottled 

 specimens both the rays and membranes weakly, but about equally pig- 

 mented. Head 3.2 to 3.6 in body, subconic, rather narrower and more slender 

 than in the next species and somewhat more depressed, its length always 

 considerably greater than its width, which is contained 1.2 to 1.3 in length 

 of head in adults, in length of body from 3.9 to 4.7; nose longer and the snout 

 more sharply rounded than in A. melas; upper jaw usually distinctly longer 

 than lower; maxillary barbel usually reaching considerably beyond gill- 

 opening, often beyond humeral process. Dorsal spine variable, 1.8 to 2.5 in 

 head, as a rule rather long. Caudal typically somewhat more deeply emar- 

 ginate than in the next species. Anal fin of 21 to 24 rays, including rudiments, 

 usually 22 or 23, its base from 3.2 to 4.1 in length of body; free margin of fin 

 from about the eighth to the fifteenth ray but little rounded, sometimes 

 almost straight, the rays rather slender and split usually less than a third of 

 the way to base. Pectoral spine as a rule rather long, curved, and sharply 

 pointed, its length 1.8 to 2.4 in head, usually less than 2; the posterior edge in 

 the young furnished with 6 to 10 well-developed retrorse teeth, whose length 



Fig. 52 



Caudal, anal, and pectoral fins of Ameiu- 

 rus nebulosus. 



