AMERICAN CATFISHES. 13 



water snails and large thin clams (probably in most cases Anodonta) were a decidedly 

 important element, being found in 15 of the 43 fishes. They amounted to 15 per cent 

 of the food of the group, and several specimens had taken little or nothing else. Not- 

 withstanding the number of bivalves eaten by this fish, no fragment of a shell was ever 

 found in their stomachs, but the bodies of the mollusks seem to have been separated, 

 while yet living, from the shells, as indicated by their fresh condition and by the fact 

 that the shell muscles were scarcely ever present. Fishermen say that they are often 

 first notified of the presence of catfishes in their seines by seeing fragments of clams 

 floating on the surface, disgorged by the struggling captives. Still more interesting and 

 curious is the fact that the spiral-shelled mollusks found in the stomachs of these fishes 

 were almost invariably naked, the more or less mutilated bodies having only the oper- 

 cles attached. The shells are evidently cracked in the jaws of the fish and rejected 

 before the food is swallowed. As many as 120 bodies and opercles of water snails (Me- 

 lantho and Vivipara) were taken by us from the stomach of a single Illinois River cat- 

 fish. Insects were, however, a principal food of the specimens studied, making 44 

 per cent of all, and eaten by 28 fishes. Five, in fact, had eaten nothing else, and others 

 had taken 90 per cent or more of insects, mostly aquatic, although now and then a fish 

 had filled itself with terrestrial specimens. Most of the aquatic insects were larvae 

 of mayflies, dragon flies, and gnats, to be found only on the bottom. Our i-ecords indi- 

 cate that this fish spawned in May in 1898 (Craig). The spawning season in the Wabash 

 is said by Doctor Jordan to begin in June. * * * 



The channel cat is taken very frequently in bait nets and baskets, the former being 

 called by the fishermen "fiddler nets." These are baited usually with "dough balls," 

 made by mixing flour and water, allowing the paste to sour, and then baking it; or, 

 in summer, with roasting ears of corn which become sour after soaking in water for a 

 day or so. The sour smell of either the dough or the corn is said to be especially 

 attractive to this fish. 



In some localities the mud cats swarm about the mouths of sewers 

 and other places, where they obtain refuse and ofl'al. This (^arbage- 

 eating habit is, however, not confined to the mud cats, the channel 

 cats also occasionally indulging their tastes in that direction. Slops 

 from the galley and refuse from the toilet rooms of the Fish Hawk 

 in the St. Johns River, Florida, formed a great attraction for the two 

 principal catfishes of that region {Ameiurus catusf and Ictalurus 

 punctatus). It is doubtful whether the food, however foul, taints 

 the flesh in any way, and this allusion to some apparently disgusting 

 feeding habits can not consistently lead anyone who is fond of pork 

 or chicken to forego the catfish solely on this account. Besides it is 

 only occasionally and locally that these fish have access to such food. 



Mr. Charles Hiester" says that catfish appear to live on the larvae 

 of insects and on flies that fall into the water. "They never jump 

 out of the water." 



Writing of Ameiurus nebulosus, Dean (loc. cit.) says: 



The habits of the catfish make it a most objectionable neighbor. * * * The 

 stomach contents show its destructiveness to fish eggs and to young fish. * * * It 

 will eat incessantly, day and night, prowling along the bottom with barbels widely 

 spread. It will suddenly pause, sink headforemost in the mud for some unseen prey. 

 Nor is it fastidious in its diet, "from an angleworm to a piece of tin tomato can," it 

 bolts them all. From the contents of miscellaneous catfish stomachs, however, there 



o Letter ia Bull. U. S. Fish Commission, vol. u, 1SS2, p. 76-77. 



