AMERICAN CATFISHES. 29 



almost hourly) than ever before. It has been suggested that possibly the content- 

 ment brought by the homes afforded by the boards may have had some influence in 

 favoring reproduction. At all events our hatch has been more successful than for the 

 past six or seven years, and we know of no other cause to ascribe it to. 



Our first surprise was at the short period of incubation of the eggs. Based on tem- 

 perature and the period of other fishes, the time should have been about 24 to 30 

 hours, but these catfish eggs hatched in less than 20 hours. How much less we do 

 not know, but every effort to find out positively will be made during the remainder 

 of this season and next. In the two cases ob.'^erved so far this season we were 

 thwarted in getting the exact time by the fish coming off unexpectedly early in the 

 morning or in the night. The temperature of the water at the beds in both cases 

 under observation was 77^° to 78^° F., varying with the time of day. 



The first case closely watched was on May 8, when at 9.30 a. m. a female catfish was 

 seen in a depression, such as previously described, in about 12 inches of water and 3 

 feet from shore, in fine position for close observation. She was over a quantity of light- 

 orange-colored eggs, forming a gelatinous mass about 4 inches wide and 5 long and 

 apparently three-fourths of an inch thick or deep. They had every appearance of 

 being freshly deposited, the water still being somewhat muddy owing to the digging 

 of the depression. The male was lying some 3 feet away with apparent unconcern. 

 At 7.30 the next morning both fish and eggs were gone from this spot, but lying some 

 10 feet away was a female with a brood of very small young, the male being near by 

 and the fry inactive, as they invariably are when just hatched. These adult fish had 

 every appearance of the ones observed the day before. 



The second and last case observed was a better one than the former for reasons that 

 will be obvious to the reader. On May 13 at 9.30 a. m. the writer discovered a pair of 

 catfish in a depression, as before described, in about 1 foot of water and G feet from 

 shore. The fish were lying side by side, about an inch apart and apparently inactive. 

 There were no tremors or other evidence of an orgasm, so apparent in the case of black 

 bass and other fishes in the act of depositing spawn and impregnating it, and there 

 were no eggs A'isible on the bed, although the mud on the bottom between the fish 

 and at each side of them could be plainly seen. After a little less than an hour, during 

 which, unavoidably, watch was kept for only about fifteen minutes, the male was 

 found off the nest a short distance away and the female in the center of the bed over 

 a bunch of eggs such as is described in the former case. It is regrettable that con- 

 tinual watch was not kept, and a further shortcoming in observation is also to be 

 deplored. At 7.30 the next morning the fish and the eggs were gone and, as in 

 the former case, the female with a brood and the male standing guard were some 

 10 or 12 feet from the vacated bed. In the former case the writer assumed that the 

 eggs had been deposited a few hours before discovered and that at least 24 hours 

 would be required for hatching. This led in the second case to a reckoning on 

 his part that the eggs would not be hatched when he went on duty at 7.30 a. m., an 

 error which will have to be corrected by further observation. This is the more a pity, 

 as the opportunity was good for determining the exact period of incubation with this 

 fish in a given temperature of water. 



It should be stated that this last lot of eggs was watched from time to time during the 

 day and that but little change was noted. Late in the afternoon, almost sundown, it 

 was thought that the egg mass was somewhat darker, especially around the edges. 



During these observations we have arrived at the conclusion that the female of this 

 species broods the eggs during incubation and cares for the young after they are hatched, 

 the male remaining near by in either ca.se and acting apparently as a guard. This 

 opinion as to the division of parental duties is based on the fact that it is the larger fish 

 that broods the eggs and cares for the young, the smaller one standing guard and that, 

 without a single exception in our observations of several broods, the smaller, or guard 

 fish, has an ugly wound on the top of his head well back of the eyes, where the teeth of 



