14 AMERICAN CATFISHES. 



appears to exist a general preference for fish food. Professor Goode has already noted 

 the attractiveness of salt mackerel or herring bait. He has, moreover, hinted inci- 

 dentally that the fish will not bite when an east wind is blowing. It is in order to 

 procure food in a lazy and strategic way that the catfish has been seen to sink in the 

 mud with but barbels and dusky forehead exposed, ready to rush out and swallow the 

 unwary prey. 



In the Atchafalaya River reg;ion in Louisiana, Evermann says the 

 impression prevails among the fishermen that the blue cat and goujon 

 run out over the flooded districts on account of the more abundant 

 food supply to be found there, which consists chiefly of crawfish 

 inhabiting the shallow pools and ponds made accessible to the cat- 

 fish through the agency of the floods. He further states that the 

 goujon is more voracious than the blue cat, and large individuals 

 are apt to feed upon smaller blue cats when confined in the same car. 

 To prevent this, it is said that the fishermen sometimes sew up with 

 wires the mouths of the very large goujon. 



According to Forbes and Richardson the goujon lives and feeds 

 on or near the bottom, and the fishermen at Havana, 111., say that 

 they frequently find it in hollow logs ; that fishes are so far as known 

 its principal food, and among those eaten by it they had observed a 

 common river sunfish (Lepomis), several minnows, and a bullhead. 



Regarding the blue cat the same authors state that a specimen 

 examined by Kofoid had eaten fragments of bark (20 per cent), insect 

 fragments and larvae (50 per cent), and miscellaneous organic debris, 

 and the senior author found fishes only in the stomach of a specimen 

 taken in 1887. 



In their feeding habits all species of catfish seem to be more or less 

 nocturnal. They take a hook most readily from about twilight on 

 into the night. Most set-line fishing is carried on at night. Moon- 

 lit nights, however, are more favorable than dark ones. On the St. 

 Johns River it was noticed that the fish would begin to rise shortly 

 after sunset, in large numbers, and the sound of their "breaks" 

 could be heard in all directions, although a lot of garbage thrown 

 overboard would not fail to raise more or less of them during the day. 

 The catfish here were wary of a baited hook, and although freely 

 eating of pieces of bread or meat floating at the surface, would never 

 touch this if a hook and line were attached. Yet a hook baited with 

 meat or fish and sunk would usually be satisfactorily efi'ective, espe- 

 cially if "bream" {Lepomis) began to bite first. The presence of 

 other more readily biting fish seemed to attract the catfish and render 

 them bolder. Large catfish would take a small baited "bream" 

 hook much more quickly than they would a large hook. The jnud cat 

 here bit no more greedily than the channel cat. It might be well to 

 state in this connection that the channel cats (Ictalurus punctaius 

 and Ictalurus furcatus) are sufficiently game fighters to give an angler 



