FISHES OF NEW YORK .81 



The adults of this species are bluish silvery, and the young 

 are spotted with olive. It is one of the handsomest of the 

 family of catfishes and an excellent food fish. The spotted cat 

 grows to a length of 3 feet and a weight of 25 pounds. It is 

 extremely variable in color and in number of fin rays, and has, 

 consequently, been described under more than 20 different 

 names. It is most abundant in large clear streams. This 

 species is less hardy than most of the other catfishes. 



Genus ameiurus Rafinesque 



Body moderately elongated, robust anteriorly, the caudal 

 peduncle much compressed; head large, wide, obtuse; super- 

 occipital extended backward, terminating in a more or less 

 acute point, which is entirely separate from the second inter- 

 spinal buckler; skin covering the bones thick; eyes rather small; 

 mouth large, the upper jaw usually the longer; teeth in broad 

 bands on the premaxillaries and mandibles; band of upper jaw 

 convex in front, of equal breadth, and without backward pro- 

 longation at the angle; dorsal over the space between pectorals 

 and ventrals, higher than long, with a sharp spine and about 

 six branched rays; adipose fin short, inserted over the posterior 

 half of the anal; anal fin usually short, with 20 or 21 rays, but 

 varying from 15 to 85 if certain fork-tailed species really be- 

 long to the genus; caudal fin short, truncate in typical species, 

 more or less forked in forms approaching Ictalurus; ven-^ 

 trals with one simple and seven branched rays; pectoral fins 

 each with a stout spine, which is commonly retrorse serrate 

 behind; lateral line usually incomplete; species numerous in 

 nearly all fresh waters of the eastern United States. 



44 Ameiurus lacustris (Walbaum) 



L 



Lake Catfish 



Gadus lacustris Walbaum, Artedi, Gen. Pise. 144, 1792. 

 Amiurus boreaUs Gunther, Oat. Fish. Brit. Mus. V, 100, 1SG4. 

 lotalurus lacustris Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16. U. S. Nat. Mus. 108, 1883. 

 Ictalurus nigricans Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 882, 1883. 

 Pimelodus nigricans De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 180, pi. 62, fig. 170, 1842. 

 Ameiurus lacustris Jordan & Evebmann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 137, 

 1896. 



