286 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



diameter of the eye. The length of the lower jaw and that of the post- 

 orbital portion of the head are eqnal. There is a black lateral band 

 following the course of the lateral line and continued around the nose, 

 most distinct in the young specimen. 

 United States National Museuji, 

 WashingtoUj December 18, 1879. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF ATIIUfSUS (A. PONDEKOSIJS) 

 FROi^I THE JTIISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



By TAKLETO.\ H. BEAIV. 



The United States National Museum received from Dr. J. G. W. 

 Steedman, of Saint Louis, Mo., chairman of the Missouri Fish Commis- 

 sion, on the 8th of November, 1879, a Catfish which weighed 150 pounds 

 at the time of shipment. After comparing this with the other described 

 species of Aminrus I am unable to identify it with any of them. The 

 most distinguishing character of the species is its many-rayed anal, in 

 which it resembles Ichthcclurus rather than Amiurus, though it has the 

 skull-structure of the latter. 



The specimen Avhich forms the tyi^e of the present description was 

 sent at the recpiest of Prof. Spencer F. Baird, United States Commis- 

 sioner of Fish and Fisheries, to whom Dr. Steedman wrote the follow- 

 ing information : "Your letter requesting the shipment to you of a large 

 Mississippi Catfish Avas received this morniug. T'pon visiting our 

 market this P. M. I luckily found two— one of 144 lbs., the other 150 

 lbs. The latter I shi]) to you to-night by express, ... 1 purchased 

 it from an old fish-dealer of 30 years' experience in our market -, and he 

 assures me that the largest Mississippi Catfish he has met in that time 

 weighed 198 pounds. (He says he has heard of Cattish weighing 250 

 and 300 pounds, but he does not believe the stories.) This is the only 

 variety, he says, which reaches 100 lbs. There is another species which 

 sometimes attains 05 lbs. in weight. My informant (and he is practical 

 authority among us) enumerates six well-marked varieties of Catfish in 

 the Mississippi waters " 



The admission of this s]iecies into the genus Amiurus Avill necessitate 

 a modification of the definition of the genus so far as the limits of varia- 

 tion in the anal rays are concerned; and will leave only the lack of con- 

 tiguity between the suj)ra-occipital and the second interspinal to dis- 

 tinguish Amiurus from Ichthcvlurus. A plaster cast and the skeleton of 

 the type are preserved. 



Description.— The catalogue number of the type is 23388; its 

 length, to the origin of the middle caudal rays, is 57.2 inches, to the end 

 of the same rays, 61 inches. The distance from the middle of the base 

 of the caudal to the end of the upper caudal lobe is 8 inches. 



