90 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY II. 



natalis form of this species. There is certainly nothing in the emargin- 

 ation of the caudal fin in which confinis and hoyi differ from the rest of 

 the species with the caudal fin truncate, as has been supposed by Prof. 

 Cope, on the strength of Girard's description. 



The only good description of this species is that of Prof. Gill, under 

 the name of Ayniurus obesiis, in the report of Captain Simpson's Explo- 

 rations. I have no doubt of the identity of Eafinesque's melas with 

 the ohesus. The obesiis occurs in considerable abundance about the 

 Falls of the Ohio, and Rafinesque's description is reasonably accurate. 



16. AMIURUS CATUS, (L.) Gill. 

 Bullhead — Hornpout— Catfish. 



(Figs. 40 and 41.) 



fBagre feeundce species Marcgr. affinis, Catesby (1750), Fishes etc. Carolina, 23, tab. 



sxiii (a most wretched figure, absolutely unidentifiable). 

 Silurus catus, Linn. (1758), Syst. Nat, s, p. 305 ; (1766), xii, p. .504. — Bloch. Schn. 

 (1801), 387.— MiTCHiLL (1818), Journal Lit. & Philos. Soc. N. Y. i, 433. 

 Pimelodus catus, Cuv. & Val. (1840), xv, 124.— De Kay (1842), Fishes N. Y. 182.— 



Stoker (1846), Synopsis, 402. 

 Amiurus catus, Gill (1862), Froc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 44.— GtJNTHER (1864), Cat. 

 Fishes, v, 99 (excl. syn. pars). — Uhler & Lugger (1876), Fishes of Maryland, 

 152. 

 Pimelodus nebulosus, Le Sueur (1819), M^m. de Musdum, v, 149.— Storer (1838), Kept. 

 Fishes Mass. 102. 

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

 Am. Philos. Soc. 435. 

 Pimelodus atrarius, Be Kay (1842), Fishes N. Y. 185.— Stores (1846), Synopsis, 404 ; 

 (1855), Fishes of Mass. 279. 

 Amiurus atrarius, Gill (1862), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 44.— Jordan (1876), Man. 

 Vert. 30.— Nelson (1876), Bull. Ills. Mus. Nat. Hist. 50.— Jordan &, Copeland 

 (1876), Check List, 159.- Jordan (1877), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 46. 

 Pimelodus felis, Agassiz (1850), Lake Superior, 281. 



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

 Pimelodus hoyi, Girard (1859), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 159. 



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

 Philos. Soc. 486. — Jordan (1876), Man. Vert. 301.— Jordan & Copeland 

 (1876), Check List, 159. 

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

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



Variety? Mispilliensis. 



Amiurus mispilliensis, Cope (1870), Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. 486. — Jordan & Copeland 

 (1876), Check List, 1-59. 



Hahitat. — Great Lake Region and Upper Mississippi to Arkansas and 

 northward ; also in streams of the Atlantic States from Maine south 

 to Carolina. 



