84 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY II. 



This species is the "Great Fork-tailed Cat" of the Lakes and the 

 " Great Mississippi Cat" of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. I have seen 

 and identified specimens of thirty to forty pounds weight, and have seen 

 specimens which I suppose were of this species which weighed nearly a 

 hundred pounds. I have heard of Catfish weighing two or three hun- 

 dred pounds, but have never seen them, and presume they were " weighed 

 by guess". This species undoubtedly attains the largest size of any of 

 our representatives of the family. Specimens of this species of a large 

 size are in the United States National Museum, from St. John's River, 

 Florida. They appear to have a rather steeper front than the northern 

 ones, but are otherwise similar. 



As indicated above, the "JL. nigricans " of Dr. Giinther is probably the 

 coenosus, as the present species has the caudal fin strouglj^ forked. 



8. AMIURUS BOREALIS, (Richardson) Gill 

 The Mathemeg or Land Cod. 

 Pimelodus borealis, Richardson (1836), Fauna Boreali-Americana, Fishes, 135. — Cuv. 

 & Val. (1840), XV, 130.— Storer (1846), Synopsis, 402. 

 Amiurus b07-ealis, GiiA. (1862), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 44.— Gt)NTHER (1864), 

 Cat. Fishes, v, 100.— Cope (1870), Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. 485.— Jordan & Cope- 

 land, Check List, 159. 



ITahitat. — British America. 



I do not know this species, and it may not really have a forked caudal 

 fin. It is not improbable that its relations are with A7niuncs coenosus 

 rather than with A. nigricans. 



9. AMIURUS ALBIDUS, [Le Sueur) Gill. 



Eastern Fork-tailed Cat— "Channel Cat" of the Potomac. 



(Figs. 15 and 16.) 

 Pimelodus alhidus, Le Sueur (1819), M^ui. du Mus. d'Histoire Nat. v, 148. — Cuv. & 

 Val. (1840), xv, 131. 

 Amiurus albidus, Gill (1862), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 44. 

 Pimelodus nebulosus, Cuv. «fc Val. (1840), xv, 132 (in part; not of Le Sueur). 



Amiurus nebulosus, Gunther (1864), Cat. Fishes, v, 101. 

 Pimelodus lynx, Girard (1859), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 160. 



Amiurus lynx, Gill (1862), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 44.— Cope (1870), Proc. Am. 

 Philos. Soc. 485.— Uhler & Lugger (1876), Fishes Maryland, 152.— Jordan 

 (1876), Man. Vert. 300.— Jordan & Copeland (1876), Check List, 160. 

 Ictalurus macaskeyi, Stauffer (1869), Mombert's History Lancaster Co. Pa. 578. 

 Ictalurua Tcevinskii, Stauffer (1869), Mombert's History Lancaster Co. Pa. 578. 



Habitat. — Atlantic streams, Pennsylvania to North Carolina. 



The Pimelodus albidus of Le Sueur* seems to me rather to have been 



* Le Sueur says : " Tete large, aplatie ; * * couleur d'uu blanc cendr^a » * * 

 caudale trhs 16gfereraent echancr6e," characters evidently belonging to the lynx rather 

 than to the catus. This is the more plain, as in describing the distinctly fork-tailed 



