76 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



species, states that the little ones are protected in the mouth 

 of the i^arent when suddenly alarmed. The jumping of the 

 bowfln is one of its most characteristic habits. Dr Estes saw 

 them turn complete somersaults while in the air. 



The bowfln is not a food fish, its flesh being soft and un- 

 savory; 3^et Dr Goode found them highly esteemed as a sweet 

 morsel by the negroes of the south. The young are in great 

 demand as bait for pike and pickerel, and both these and the 

 adults are interesting for the aquarium because of their colors, 

 the ease with which they endure captivity, the peculiarities of 

 their anatomic structure and their affinities with extinct 

 ganoids. 



It is seldom taken near Ithaca and is not common at the 

 northern end of Cayuga lake. 



Series telzostei 



Bony Fishes 



Subclass OSTARIOPHYSI 



Order nematognathi 



Cat fishes 



Family siluridae 



Cat fishes 

 Genus felichthys Swainson 



Body rather elongate, little compressed; head depressed, 

 broad above; mouth large, the upper jaw the longer; teeth all 

 villiform, those on the vomer and palatines forming a more or 

 less perfectly crescent-shaped band; barbels four; maxillary 

 barbels bandlike, very long; two short barbels on chin; nostrils 

 close together, the posterior with a valve; nuchal region with 

 a granulated, bony buckler; fontanelle large, well forward; gill 

 membranes somewhat connected; dorsal flu short, in front of 

 ventrals, with one sharp spine and seven rays; pectorals with a 

 similar spine; pectoral spines, and sometimes dorsal spines also, 

 ending in a long, striated, bandlike fllament; anal fin emarginate, 

 shorter than caudal part of vertebral column; adipose fin mod- 



