64 



FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



Spawning occurs in summer, the large eggs being first deposited in a sandy 

 depression and subsequently taken into the r^outh of one of the parents (male?) 

 where they remain until hatching ensues; the young are retained in the parent's 

 mouth for some time after hatching. From the mouth of a fish 10 inches long, 

 11 young 1-inch long have been taken; and in another of the same size 8 or 9 eggs 

 as large as marbles were found. 



The sea cat-fish is often caught with a hook, but it is not an important com- 

 mercial species, although the flesh is quite palatable. 



Genus ICTALURUS Rafinesque. Channel Cat-fishes; Fork-tailed Cat-fishes. 



Large North American cat-fishes, with widely-forked tails, preferring 

 channels of larger streams. Form more graceful than that of other cat-fishes; 

 head slender, conical, mouth small, upper jaw longer; dorsal fin short and high; 

 anal fin long. (Ictalurus, cat-fish.) 



32. ICTALURUS PUNOTATUS (Rafinesque). 



"Blue Oat-fish"; Spotted Cat-fish; Channel Cat-fish (S. C, Fla.); 

 Eel Cat-fish; Mississippi Cat-fish. 



Silurus punctatus Rafinesque, American Monthly Magazine, 359, 1818; Ohio River. 



Ictalurus coerulescens Cope, 18706, 489; French Broad and other North Carolina tributaries of Tennessee. 

 Ictalurus punctatus, Jordan, 18896, 151; French Broad River. Smith, 18936, pi. xliv. Jordan & Evermann, 

 1896, 134, pi. XXV, fig. 58. 



Diagnosis. — Body long and slender, depth .2 total length; head small, comparatively 

 narrow, .25 total length; mouth small, maxillary barbels reaching beyond giU-opening; dorsal 

 rays i,6; anal large, with 25 to 30 rays. Color: above light grayish-green; below silvery; back 

 and sides with small, round, irregularly placed dark spots; the body color sometimes a very 

 dark velvety green, obscuring the spots, {punctatus, spotted.) 



Fig. 17. Spotted Cat-fish. Ictalurus punctatus. 



The spotted cat-fish inhabits the Mississippi basin, streams of the Great 

 Lakes region, and streams tributary to the Gulf of Mexico; and has been very 

 successfully introduced into the Potomac. The only records of the occurrence of 

 this species in North Carolina waters are those of Cope and Jordan before cited. 

 Cope stated that the species abounded in the French Broad, and was much used 

 as food. Jordan reported the young as abundant in channels of the French 



