66 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



Food : The young up to the third month feed on microscopic organisms in 

 the water. Later, they feed on small Crustacea, copepods, algae, 

 annelids, etc. The adults feed on Crustacea, and molluscs. 



SILURID^. The Cat-Fishes. 



33. Felichthys felis* (Mitchill). Sea Catfish; Gafftopsail Cat. 



Geog. Dist.: Cape Cod to Texas, common southward. Specimens taken 

 at Woods Hole (Baird, 1873), New Bedford (Goode, 1879), Menemsha 

 Bight (Smith, 1898). 



Season in R. I.: Specimens from Newport in Powell Collection of the Bos- 

 ton Society of Natural History. (Kendall, 1908). Specimen taken 

 at Brenton Reef Light Ship, September 16, 1898. 



Habitat: More common northward than G. milberti and more of a deep 

 water fish than that species. 



Reproduction: Large eggs and similar in habit to G. milberti (Henshall). 

 For an account of the incubation of the eggs of Marine Catfishes, see 

 Pellegrin, (Comp. Rendu. French, Ass. Adv. Sci. 1907, and Sci. Amer., 

 N. S. 64, 1907, 260.) 



Size: 26 inches. 



34. Galeichthys milberti* (Linnaeus). Sea Cat-Fish. 



Geog. Dist.: Cape Cod to Texas, common southward. Was formerly 

 common in spring in Vineyard Sound, but now rare. (Smith.) 



Season in R. I.: Rare in R. I.; Narragansett Bay (R. I. Fish Com. 1894, 

 211). 



Habitat: Bottom fish along sandy coast. 



Reproduction: Eggs, large and incubated in the gill cavity of the male. 

 (Henshall, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. 1894, 211.) 



Food: Omnivorous; chief diet worms and Crustacea. 



Size: 24 inches. 



35. Ameiurus nebulosus (LeSueur). Homed Pout; Bullhead. 



Geog. Dist.: Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, to Maine, Florida and Texas; 



abundant in all New England States. 

 Season in R. I. : Generally present in all fresh water ponds in Rhode Island. 



Reported from Mashapaug, Randalls, Benedict, and Fenners ponds; 



Poneganset Reservoir, Pocasset River (Kendall, 1908); ponds and 



streams in North Kingstown, Carolina, and Pascoag. Also from the 



* These specific names are on the authority of GUnther who examined Linneaus' collection 

 of fishes. See Jordan, Amer. Nat, 34, 1900, 70. 



