ameiurus — bullheads; horned pout 189 



The horned pout are "dull and blundering fellows," fond of the 

 mud, and growing best in weedy ponds and rivers without current. 

 They stay near the bottom, moving slowly about with their barbels 

 widely spread, watching for anything eatable. They will take any 

 kind of bait from an angleworm to a piece of tomato can, without 

 hesitation or coquetry, and they seldom fail to swallow the hook. 

 They are very tenacious of life, opening and shutting their mouths 

 for half an hour after their heads have been taken off. They spawn 

 in spring, and the old fishes lead the young in great schools near 

 the shore, caring for them as a hen cares for her chickens. "A 

 bloodthirsty and bullying set of rangers, with ever a lance at rest 

 and ready to do battle with their nearest neighbor." — Thoreau. 



It is known that many pond-stocking experiments with this 

 species in France failed at first owing to the failure to se ect the 

 proper kind of situations. 



These fishes will live where no others can survive, and when the 

 air supplyisbad farpast thepoint of supporting life in ordinary fishes, 

 they have merely to come leisurely to the surface and renew the 

 supply in their swim-bladders. In the late fall they become slug- 

 gish and cease feeding, often "mudding up," or burying themselves 

 more or less in soft leafy ooze along shore.* They will lie dormant 

 in the mud at the bottom of dried-out shallows for weeks at a time 

 without harm, and have even been found, according to some (Dean), 

 in cocoon-like clods of nearly dried mud, still alive. In pond culture 

 experiments in Georgia (Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 1884, p. 32) they 

 were found to relish apples, persimmons, watermelons, and even 

 corn, wheat, and sorghum seed. They will take almost any kind 

 of bait. The charge of spawn-eating has frequently been preferred 

 against this fish, as well as its near relatives, especially by the white- 

 fish and shad culturists. The evidence for such a view is, however, 

 scanty, t 



The brown bullhead spawns in spring, the time having been 

 May in 1898 at Havana (Craig). Their nests w r ere found by Pro- 

 fessor Birge in shallow bays with sandy bottom, six inches to two 

 feet deep. The eggs are laid in masses similar to those of the frog, 

 and are of a beautiful cream-color. In aquarium experiments by 



*Shallow lakes in Vermont are mowed in the spring by the farmers to allow 

 seining for them. — Evermann and Kendall. Rep. U. S. Fish Comm., 1894. 



tit is interesting in this connection to note that Herr Fuhnnann, writing of 

 recent experiments carried out in France (Bull. Soc. Acclim., Vol. 51, p. 351, Nov., 

 1904), states that this species does not eat the eggs of Coregonus except when they 

 are very fresh, that is, before they are hardened by the water, which occurs very 

 quickly after they are deposited. 



