Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2789 



The eel cat rarely attains a greater weight than 5 pounds, and usually 

 does not exceed 3 pounds. Its flesh is firm and of excellent flavor. The 

 spawning season appears to l>e during the spring, as several of the indi- 

 viduals examined were in mature spawning condition.* Lower Missis- 

 sippi Valley; thus far known only from the Atchafalaya River, Louisiana 

 and the Ohio River at Louisville, (anguilla, the generic name of the eel.) 



Ictalurus anguilla, EVEUMANN & KENDALL, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. 1897 (Feb. 9, 1898), 

 125, pi. 6, fig. 1, Atchafalaya River, Louisiana. (Type, No. 48788. Coll. Evenuann & 

 Chamberlain.) 



Recent studies of the catfishes of the Lower Mississippi Valley by Dr. 

 Evernianii have shown that the most abundant and most important spe- 

 cies of catfish in that region is Ictalurus furcatus (Le Sueur), and not 

 Ameiurus lacustris (Walbauin), as has hitherto been supposed. The large 

 specimen described by Dr. Bean as Arniurus ponderosus is an Ictalurus (as 

 shown by the skeleton now in the United States National Museum) and 

 apparently I. furcatus. The common names " Great Fork- tailed Cat/' 

 " Mississippi Cat/' and " Blue "Cat" all belong to /. furcatus. 



Page 138. The species called Ameiurus dugesii belongs to the genus Vil- 

 lariu-s, Rutter. 



Page 142. After Ameiurus nigrilabris add : 



7 7 (a). VILLARIUS, Butter. 

 Villarius, RUTTER, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci., ser. 2, vol. VI, 1896, 256 (pricei). 



Allied to Ameiurus, differing in the presence of scattered cilia on the 

 sides. Backward process from occipital short, broad, emarginate, con- 

 nected by ligament with the first interspinal buckler; in adults the dis- 

 tance between this process and the buckler is equal to the length of the 

 former; in young examples the process overlaps the keel on the under- 

 side of the buckler. Head narrow, width of intermaxillary band of teeth 

 ^ of head; caudal deeply forked, the upper lobe the longer; barbels long, 

 those of the maxillary extending past the gill opening. Sides with scat- 

 tered hair-like cirri ; these are very noticeable under a lens, but not readily 

 distinguished by the naked eye. This genus differs from all others of the 

 family in having hair-like cirri on the sides. It differs from Ictalurus in 

 having the occipital process and the interspinal buckler widely separated 

 and connected by ligament; from Ameiurus in having a narrow head and 

 a deeply forked caudal. Two species known, the following and Villarius 

 dugesii (Bean), (villus, a hair.) 



* This species is well known to the fishermen of the Atchafalaya River, by whom it is 

 usually called the "eel cat," though the name "willow cat" is sometimes applied to it. 

 It was explained by the fishermen that the name " eel cat" was given on account of the 

 long feelers (i. e., barbels) and the name "willow cat" because it is most frequently 

 found about the roots of willow trees. The eel cat is not an abundant species in the 

 Atchafalaya River. During six days (April 19-24) spent at Morgan City several hun- 

 dred catfish were examined at the three fish houses, and the total number of eel cats seen 

 was fewer than twenty-five. The fishermen report that this proportion is about as great 

 as at any time of the year. Of the four commercial species of catfishes handled on this 

 river the most abundant one is the blue cat (Ictalurutfiircatus), and the next is the yel- 

 low cat or goujon (Leptops olivaris) ; the eel cat comes next and the spotted cat (Ictalurus 

 punctatus) last. The blue cat and the yellow cat probably constitute 98 per cent of the 

 entire catch. 



