
FISHES OF PENNSYLVANLA. 13 

three feet and a weight of twenty-five pounds. It is extremely variable 
in color and in number of fin rays, and has consequently been described 
under more than twenty different names. It is most abundant in large 
clear streams. ‘This species is less hardy than most of the other cat- 
fishes. ’ 
Genus AMIURUS Rarrnesaque. 
18. Amiurus nigricans Le Sueur. 
The Great Catfish. (igure 22.) 
The great catfish has a stout body, a broad and much depressed head and a wide 
mouth, The depth of the body is contained five times in total length, without cau- 
dal; the head equals more than one-fourth of this length. Maxillary barbel as long 
as anal base, almost as long as the head. Eye rather small. Dorsal base short, one- 
half height of fin. Adipose fin well developed. Caudal not deeply forked. Pec- 
toral spine as long as dorsal spine, one-half length of head. east depth of caudal 
peduncle less than one-half greatest depth of body. D. I, 5 (sometimes 6); A. 25; 
Weeliatss 
The specimen described, twenty inches long, is No. 36,142, United States Na- 
tional Museum, from Tennessee river, Alabama. 
This is the great fork-tailed cat, Mississippi cat, Florida cat, flannel- 
mouth cat and great blue cat of various writers. It is also called mud 
cat in the St. John’s river, Florida. The species is very variable, as we 
would expect from its wide distribution. In 1879 Prof. Spencer F. 
Baird received, from Dr. Steedman, of St. Louis, a Mississippi river cat- 
fish weighing one hundred and fifty pounds and measuring five feet in 
length. The writer described this fish as a new species related to the 
great black catfish of the Mississippi valley, Amiurus nigricans. At 
the present time it is somewhat doubtful whether or not this is merely 
an overgrown individual of the species under consideration, and the 
matter must remain in doubt until smaller examples of Amiurus pon- 
derosus have been obtained. 
The great fork-tailed cat is a native of the great lakes and the Ohio 
and Mississippi valleys, and in the southern states its range extends 
southward to Florida; northward it ranges to Ontario. 
This catfish reaches a weight of one hundred pounds or upward, 
and if it includes the giant form above referred to, we may place the 
maximum weight at over one hundred and fifty pounds. Dr. Steedman 
was informed by an old fisherman that the heaviest one he had ever seen 
weighed one hundred and ninety-eight pounds, but it is doubtful if such 
large individuals are to be taken at the present time. In Lake Erie this 
species usually weighs from five to fifteen pounds, and the largest spe- 
cimens reach forty pounds. 
The habits of this fish are presumably about the same as in other spec- 
ies of the family. On account of the great size of the fish it naturally 
prefers lakes and large rivers. It is a bottom feeder and will take most 
any kind of bait. This species is wonderfully tenacious of life. It 
