FAMILY AMEIURIDAE 177 



depression or a muskrat burrow. The young remain for some time in 

 dense schools attended by the male. 



NORTHERN BROWN BULLHEAD (Speckled Bullhead) 

 Ameiwus nebulosus nchulosus (LeSueur) 



The body of the brown bullhead (Figure 27C) is typically elongate 

 but becomes more robust northward. The anal fin is moderately long 

 and has 17 to 24 rays, usually 18 to 21. Its base is one-half the length 

 of the body. The barbels under the jaw range from gray to black. 

 The body shows a wide range of color, from yellowish to black, but is 

 usually a dark yellowish brown mottled with dark green. It can be dis- 

 tinguished from the black bullhead, A. iiielas, by the absence of a light 

 bar from the base of the tail and often by the somewhat higher dorsal 

 fin and except in old individuals by the strong barbs on the pectoral 

 spines. This species usually does not exceed a foot in length, but some- 

 times attains a length of 18 inches and a weight of 3 or 4 pounds. 



The range of the northern brown bullhead is from North Dakota 

 into New England, southward to the northern part of the Ohio Valley, 

 and along the Atlantic Coast to Virginia. Although present in the 

 Great Lakes drainage, it is absent from the Lake Superior drainage. 

 It intergrades with another subspecies in the Ohio Valley southward. 

 Of the three bullheads occurring in Minnesota the brown bullhead is 

 perhaps the most common. It frequents by preference the quieter 

 waters of both lakes and streams. It occurs abundantly in the back- 

 waters of the Mississippi below St. Paul. It is found in the Minnesota 

 and Blue Earth rivers and their tributaries and at one time occurred 

 in the Red River (Woolman, 1895) , but it has not been reported re- 

 cently. Surber (1920) found it in certain Pine County lakes tributary 

 to the St. Croix, in Green Lake in Kandiyohi County, and in Four 

 Mile Bay near the mouth of the Rainy River. Friedrich (1933) report- 

 ed it from the Mississippi River above St. Anthony Falls and in the 

 Sauk River. It occurs in Lake Pepin and certain backwaters above 

 and below the lake. It is widespread in Iowa and in Wisconsin, except 

 in the Lake Superior drainage. 



Like other bullheads, it spawns rather early in the spring, from April 

 to June, and great schools of the jet-black young are often seen in the 

 warm, stagnant pools and sloughs, swimming at the surface in summer, 

 usually guarded by the parent male fish. They make nests six inches 

 deep, and according to Forbes and Richardson (1908) up to two 

 feet deep, on shallow sand or mud bottoms, sometimes using mouths 

 of muskrat burrows or natural depressions. The cream-colored eggs are 

 deposited in masses and are guarded hx the male. Females 11 to 13 

 inches long were found to have 6000 to 13,000 eggs in their ovaries. 

 Both this species and the black bullhead have thick skins and are more 

 easilv dressed than the thin-skinned vellow bullhead. 



