94 The American Angler 
their size. And those of the eggs that 
the sperm does not touch, as in the 
case of the sea-fishes, are useless and 
sterile. But in these fertile eggs, as 
the fishes grow larger, a kind of husk 
separates, and this is the envelope that 
encloses the egg and the young fish. 
When the sperm has mingled with the 
egg, the spawn becomes more viscous 
among the roots, or wherever it may 
have been deposited, the male guards 
the and the female, 
spawned, departs. 
eggs, having 
The growth of the 
Glanis from the egg is very slow, 
wherefore the male keeps watch for 
forty or fifty days, that the young may 
not be devoured by the fishes that hap- 
pen to be in their neighborhood. 
‘¢Of the river fishes, the male G/anzis 
For the 
female, having brought forth, departs; 
takes great care of its young. 
but the male, where the greatest de- 
posit of eggs has been formed, remains 
by them watching, rendering no other 
service except keeping other fish from 
destroying the young. He does this 
tor forty or fifty days, until the young 
are sufficiently grown to escape from 
the other fishes. And he is known to 
the fishermen, wherever he may chance 
to be watching his eggs, for he keeps 
off the fishes by rushing movements, 
and by making a noise and moaning. 
And he remains by the eggs with so 
much of natural affection that the fish- 
men, when the eggs adhere to deep 
roots, bring them up to the shallowest 
place they can; but he does not even 
then leave his offspring; but if he 
chances to be a young fish, he is easily 
taken by the hook, because he snaps at 
all the fishes that approach him; but 
if he is already accustomed to this, and 
has swallowed hooks before, he does 
not even then desert his young, but 
breaks the hook by a very strong bite.” 
The great fork-tailed catfish of the 
Mississippi river—Amecurus nigricans 
—is also called the flannel-mouth cat, 
particularly when young, the great 
blue cat and the Florida cat. It is a 
native of the Great Lakes, and its 
habitat extends southward to Florida, 
covering the Ohio and Mississippi val- 
leys and reaching Ontario on the north. 
Little is known of its habits, but it 
lives and feeds near, or on, the bottom, 
and is a very coarse feeder, offal of any 
description devoured. 
I have seen them at Jacksonville gather 
being eagerly 
in great schools, feeding on the output 
of the 
closets which overhang the outer edges 
When caught it can be 
distinguished from the only other cat- 
fish of 
Leptops 
waters 
sewers and that of the water- 
of the piers. 
great size—the big mud cat, 
olivaris (found in the same 
and reaching a weight of 
pounds) with a _ yellow 
body, strongly mottled with brown; 
the Mississippicat being of a slaty blue 
color, and the older the fish gets the 
deeper the coloration becomes. The 
construction of the fins of the mud cat 
will also serve to distinguish it from 
its larger congener, as the anal fin shows 
only twelve to fifteen rays, while that 
of the Mississippi cat has twenty-five 
to thirty-five. In this connection, it 
may be well to state that the num- 
ber of spines and rays in the fins of the 
catfishes is extremely variable and 
should not be considered by the ama- 
teur ichthyologist or angler as an in- 
fallible guide in the determination of 
species, except in such wide differenta- 
tions as above described. 
The angler, when fishing in fresh 
water, will meet with several species 
of catfish, other than those named. 
The yellow cat—Amzeurus natalis— 
which may be known by its large adi- 
seventy-five 
