The Blue Cat 



To see white catfish as large as man, 

 Through what the bards call 'water wan,' 

 Come with an ugly rush! 



" They say the Catfish climbs the trees, 

 And robs the roosts, and down the breeze 



Prolongs his catterwaul. 

 Oh, leave him in his western flood 

 Where the Mississippi churns the mud; 



Don't bring him here at all! " 



The spawning season of the blue cat in Louisiana is during 

 the months of April and May. Out of 374 fish examined at 

 Morgan City, Louisiana, April 22-24, rnore than 94 per cent, were 

 spent fish or fish ready to spawn. 



In Louisiana this, the most valuable of all our catfishes, is 

 known as the blue cat or poisson bleu. Elsewhere in the 

 Mississippi Valley it is the Mississippi cat, the great forktailed 

 cat 01 chucklehead cat. Whether the names Florida cat, flannel- 

 mouth cat, etc., apply to this species is not certain, as the blue 

 cat and the large northern catfish (Ameiurus lacustris) have not 

 been clearly differentiated. 



Head 4 to 4^ in length of body; depth 4 to 5; D.I, 6; 

 A. 32 ; distance from tip of snout to origin of dorsal fin 2| in 

 body; greatest width of head i in its length; interorbital width 

 2, equalling width of mouth ; maxillary barbel not reaching beyond 

 head ; humeral process about % length of pectoral spine; anal base 

 nearly longer than head, or ^ length of body ; head small; 

 mouth narrow; eye small, wholly anterior, the middle of the head 

 being behind its posterior margin; dorsal a little nearer snout than 

 adipose fin; caudal deeply forked, the upper lobe usually longer 

 and narrower than the lower. Colour, dull olivaceous blue or 

 slaty, pale or whitish below, without spots anywhere; barbels 

 usually the colour of the body, rarely black. 



