CATFISH GENUS NOTURUS RAFINESQUE 207 



branched caudal rays, mean 7.8; 9 to 12, mean 10.2, lower branched 

 caudal rays; 14 to 19, mean 16.2, lower simple caudal rays. 



General color yellowish brown, with dark brown or purplish black 

 saddles and blotches. Side lightly mottled; abdomen and lower sur- 

 face of head behind mental barbels usually unpigmented or with a few 

 large round chromatophores near isthmus, uniformly yellowish or 

 white; mental barbels and chin in front of them lightly pigmented; 

 lower surface of pelvic fins occasionally with scattered pigment and 

 the upper with diffuse pigment concentrated on outer rays, fre- 

 quently forming a dark brown blotch; a small black spot on lower side 

 of caudal peduncle extends into middle of anal base; anal fin with 

 scattered brown chromatophores, especially near base, and a variable 

 black submarginal band, otherwise yellowish white; pectoral fin with 

 tip and inner margin immaculate, otherwise base and most of fin 

 mottled with dark brown pigment; dorsal fin yellowish brown near 

 base and along spine, middle clear yellowish white, tip of spine and 

 distal one-third of first four or five rays covered with a black blotch, 

 extreme tip of rays transluscent, whitish; adipose fin dark yellowish 

 brown anteriorly; a broad black saddle extends from the midside 

 through the middle of the adipose fin to its margin and turns back- 

 ward along the upper edge, extending almost to the posterior end of 

 the free flap in large specimens; free flap translucent, yellowish white; 

 anterior procurrent caudal rays translucent or white; a broad jet 

 black vertical bar of subuniform width extends from the lower to the 

 upper margins of caudal fin and broadly crosses the caudal peduncle; 

 in large specimens, it extends backward along the upper and lower 

 margins of the caudal fin to meet the broad, subterminal, black caudal 

 bar; a variable, usually narrow, vertical bar in the middle of the caudal 

 fin does not continue to the margins; remainder of fin mottled or plain 

 yellowish, margin clear white; a broad, dark brown or black saddle 

 rests between the dorsal and adipose fins; a narrow one extends from 

 in front of the dorsal spine to the second or third dorsal ray and down- 

 ward to the midside. Head dark brown, darkest along midline and at 

 posterior end where a dark bar passes downward from the occipital 

 region to the upper branchiostegal membrane and operculum; a 

 transverse dark brown bar passes backward and downward frjm the 

 eye to the operculum and forward through the eye to below the nares 

 and onto the snout; upper barbels heavily mottled. 



Type.— The holotype (UMMZ 151322) is a male, 102.9 mm. in 

 standard length. It has 3 + 12=15 anal rays, 21+9 + 11 + 17 = 58 

 caudal rays, 35 vertebrae, and 6 soft dorsal rays. On each side there 

 are nine pelvic rays, nine (atypical) soft pectoral rays, two inter- 

 nasal pores, and eleven preoperculomandibular pores. There are 



