AMERICAN CATFISHES. 16 



not too fastidious a very satisfactory battle. These two species 

 mi^ht justly be classed as game fishes. 



Ill northern lakes and streams the bullhead or hornpout does not 

 always seem to be so wily as the soutliern catfishes were usually dur- 

 ing the daytime. Although the best time to angle for hornpout is 

 about dusk or after dark, they are not infrecjuently caught in the 

 daytime, much to the annoyance of the "still fisher" for black bass, 

 pickerel, and other fishes. When bullheads begin to bite, if other 

 fish are desired, it is necessary to seek another place. They will take 

 live-fish or dead-fish bait or frogs with equal readiness. If, however, 

 bullheads are wanted, angleworms are the best bait. 



SPAWX-EATING HABITS. 



Dean has referred to the fish-egg-eating propensity of Ameiurus 

 nebulosus. This species is not alone in its ovivorous habit. A seine 

 haul on the Potomac River was estimated to contain about 10,000 

 catfish {Ameiurus catus and Ameiurus nehulosus), a large number of 

 which were opened and their stomach contents examined. The fish 

 were found to have been feeding almost exclusively upon herring 

 (Pomolohus) eggs, to such an extent that their stomachs were dis- 

 tended with the food. Mr. L. G. Harron, at whose fishery this 

 observation was made, told the writer that although these large hauls 

 were not frequent, occasionally much larger ones were made. In 

 Albemarle Sound, during one shad season, the writer frequently found 

 catfish full of shad roe, but catfish were not abundant at this time. 



Writing of the white catfish Smith says: 



During the spring fishing season, many are caught in seines hauled for shad and 

 alewives, especially the night hauls on the flats. The species resort to the shad 

 spawning grounds to feed on the eggs, and must be enormously destructive in this 

 way. On April 24, 1899, at Capehart's shad fishery at Avoca, not less than 5,000 

 white catfish, from 6 to 24 inches long, were caught at one evening haul, and these 

 were without exception absolutely gorged with shad spawn, so that their bellies were 

 distended like balloons. Schools of alewives are followed to their spawning grounds 

 by droves of catfish, which feed on the eggs. The spawn of white perch, yellow perch, 

 and other species is also extensively consumed by this catfish. 



Forbes and Richardson say : 



The charge of spawn-eating has frequently been preferred against this fish {A. nebu- 

 losus) as well as its near relatives, especially by the whitefish and shad culturists. 

 The evidence for such a view is, however, scanty. 



Under the heading 'Salmon not injured by catfish," in the Bulletin 

 of the United States Fish Commission, volume vii, 1887, page 56, 

 Mr. Horace Dunn makes the statement: 



Word has gone out that catfish have been taken in Suisun Bay [California] whose 

 stomachs were full of young fish and salmon spawn. Upon this statement the cry has 

 been made that the catfish were destroying both spawn and young salmon. The facta 



