CAT-FISH SUCKER. 383 



With regard to the fish called by Dekay Pimelodus catus, 

 Girard remarks, in Proceedings of Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia for 1859, p. 160, " The true Pime- 

 lodus catus is a Southern species, widely distinct from the 

 above." He suggests that "it might be called the Dekai." 

 He proposes the name of Pimelodus lynx for a species "fur- 

 nished by the hydrographic basin of the Chesapeake." This 

 fish is found in the streams, and ponds communicating with 

 them, up to the eastern base of the Alleghany Mountain. 



PIMELODUS Furcatus, (Cuv. et Val.) This fish grows in 

 the Ohio to the enormous length of 4J to 5 feet. Large 

 individuals are never found high up the streams among the 

 mountains. 



PIMELODUS. (?) A little cat-fish, called the stinger, 

 or stony-batter, is found in the waters at the eastern base 

 of the mountain. It is a quick-motioned fish which inflicts 

 quite a severe wound by a spine concealed in the pectoral 

 fin. Hence its name of "stinger." It lives much under 

 stones in the streams it frequents, and never attains more 

 than a few inches in length. 



Family CYPRINHLE. 



CATOSTOMUS. Of the sucker family a number of species 

 are found in the mountain streams. They are the most 

 common fishes, and found in nearly all waters.* It is said 

 by the icthyologists to be an exclusively North Ameri- 

 can group. f Descending from the mountain into the 

 rivers, the old sucker attains to respectable dimensions, 

 sometimes becoming a large and powerful fish. In the 

 small and shallow runs higher up, they swarm in numbers, 

 but are of diminutive size. The flesh of these fish is not 

 much esteemed as an article of food, as it is soft, insipid, 

 and at certain seasons entirely unpalatable. They abound 



* Wherever water exists, except in dead puddles, this numerous 

 family assume the privilege of going. 



f M. Lesueur long since described seventeen species of American 

 suckers, and figured nine of them. (See Cuvier, Pisces, p. 380.) 



