38 AMERICAN CATFISHES. 



accessible records show that they continued to do well after reaching 

 their destinations. What the ultimate results have been the writer 

 has been unable to ascertain. 



Available records of shipments of young catfish (Ameiurus nebu- 

 losus and later Idalurus punciatus) to Europe afford the following 

 data: 



November 15, 1884. — One hundred were shipped to Ghent, and on November 28, 95 

 were received. 



July 7, 1885. — Thirty sent to Amsterdam. 



June 16, 1885.— Fifty shipped, and later 49 were received in Germany. 



July 18, 1885. — One hundred sent to France, and 81 were received in good con- 

 dition. 



June 20, 1885. — Fifty consigned to England, and 48 were received in good condi- 

 tion at South Kensington. 



1892. — Five hundred and two sent to Belgium. 



1892. — Seventy-six shipped to Germany. 



1903. — Four hundred sent to Belgium. 



The most of the information possessed by the writer regarding 

 any of these plants is found in early bulletins of the Fish Commission. 

 The following is quoted from the bulletin for 1886, volume vi, pages 

 197-199: 



The first practical attempt in this direction was made in Belgium. Mr. Thomas 

 Wilson, United States consul at Ghent, first suggested placing catfish in the Scheldt, 

 a river which, owing to the large number of factories on its banks, does not contain 

 many fish. It was presumed that the catfish would be particularly adapted to the 

 river Scheldt, because it had been sufiiciently proved in America that this fish is not 

 much affected by the refuse from factories . After consulting with Prof . Spencer F . Baird 

 100 young catfish arrived at Antwerp in November, 1884. By the advice of Professor 

 Baird these young catfish were not immediately placed in the river, but first in the 

 large basins of the large aquarium. It is only after these fish have reached maturity 

 in the aquarium and have spawned there that the young generation should be trans- 

 ferred to the river. This was done, and the young catfish received from America 

 have provisionally been placed partly in a small pond in the botanical garden at 

 Ghent and partly in the Victoria Regia basin in the same garden. The selection of 

 the last place we do not consider fortunate, as the temperature of the water in this 

 basin is certainly much too high for these fish. At present there are in the Amster- 

 dam aquarium 45 catfish, brought direct from New York and placed in a special basin 

 with the hope that they will reach maturity and propagate their species. At present 

 these fish measure from 4 to 6 inches long. 



In the same bulletin, on page 138, appears the following, by Dr. 

 Jousset de Bellesme, on the American catfish in the Trocadero 

 Aquarium of Paris: 



These fish, which measured 12 centimeters (about 4| inches) in length, were, in the 

 beginning, owing to their small size, placed in one of the tanks for young fish in the 

 aquarium and remained there till November, 1885, when they were put in the large 

 basin, No. 6. 



They were first fed with raw meat, but as they did not seem to take very well to 

 this kind of food they were fed on raw fish chopped fine, which they appeared to like. 

 As soon as they were transferred to the large basin they were fed on live fiah. 



