28 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



W, H. Over, curator of the museum of the University of South 

 Dakota, for identification of certain plant forms. I am also indebted 

 to Air. Over for unpublished information concerning the environ- 

 ment of those lakes from which specimens for this study were taken, 

 and to Dr. L. O. Howard, chief of the United States Bureau of 

 Entomology, for the identification of several of the insects found. 



HISTORICAL 



There is very little available literature on the food of bullheads, 

 and no thorough study has been made of this subject. The articles 

 that have been written have been brief accounts included in longer 

 works of a general character. 



Forbes and Richardson (1920) examined 36 specmiens of Ameiurus 

 melas from Wisconsin lakes. They found the food of these fish to 

 consist one-fourth of aquatic vegetation and one-fifth bivalve mol- 

 lusks, snails, and aquatic insects; other unportant elements were 

 crayfish and other crustaceans. Two of these bullheads had eaten 

 other fish, sunfish and perch among them. They found the food of 

 the Amemrus nehvlosus to consist of small bivalve mollusks, insect 

 larvae, distUlery slops and accidental rubbish, and a few adult insects 

 and snails. Some had eaten a few leeches. 



Tracey (1910) declared the food of bullheads to be "all kinds of 

 anunal life," including the .young and eggs of fishes. He examined 

 specimens from waters in Rhode Island. 



Pearse (1918) made a brief study of the food of bullheads at the 

 time he was making a study of shore fish ui certain Wisconsin lakes. 

 He investigated the stomach contents of 15 specimens of Ameiurus 

 melas, which were found to contain the following organisms: Diptera 

 larvae, damsel-fly nymphs, beetle larvae, caterpillars, dipterous pupae, 

 adult insects, Hyalella, crayfish, ostracods, Cyclops, cladocerans, 

 snails, oligochetes, plants, and algae, in addition to silt and debris. 

 He also examined 50 A. nehulosus. Forty-two and one-tenth per 

 cent of the food of this species was composed of microscopic Crustacea 

 and 34.7 per cent of insects. Pearse makes the statement that the 

 brown bullhead feeds mostly on Entomostraca and insect larvae 

 while it is young, and when mature takes almost anything in the 

 shape of anunal food. 



Evermann and Clark (1920) examined the stomachs of 20 bull- 

 heads from Lake Maxinkuckee, Ind. They found these bullheads 

 had consumed fish flesh and seeds of the water lily {Castalia odorata), 

 craj^fish, soft-shelled mollusks, and the young of Unionidae. In this 

 same article Evermann and Clark reported that bullheads were said 

 "to feed pretty extensively on the eggs of other species of fish." 



Because of the high food value >and the growing economic im- 

 portance of the bullhead in South Dakota, the present study was 

 made to obtain information as to their food and food habits in that 

 State. 



ECONOMIC VALUE 



Annual reports ^ from the State department of game and fish show 

 that, among the rough fish seined out of South Dakota waters by 

 licensed fishermen since 1916.. the number of pounds of bullheads taken 



' Annual reports for the years 1914 to 1925 were obtained by the writer through the kindness of O. H. 

 Johnson, director of the State department of game and fish. 



