ia >* FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

spawns in the spring and protects its young, which follow the parent 
fish in great schools. Dr. Theodore Gill has reviewed the subject of the 
catfishes’ care of their young in Forest and Stream of Nov. 27, 1890. 
This is a valued food species, although not a choice fish. In Lake 
Erie, according to the Review of the Fisheries of the Great Lakes recently 
published by the United States Fish Commission, the catfish rank next 
to whitefish in number of pounds taken. 
In Lake Erie catfish are taken chiefly by means of set-lines and the 
fishing is best during the months of June, July and August. The method 
of fishing is thus described in the review just referred to: “The appara- 
tus consists of from two hundred to four hundred hooks attached by 
short lines to a main line, which is from five to twenty-seven fathoms 
long, according to the place in which set, and is held in place by poles 
or stakes pushed in the mud. The lines are usually set in the lake, but 
occasionally short ones are fished in the bayous and marshes. Catfish 
are taken with a bait of herring (Coregonus artedi) or grasshoppers, and 
are mostly used in the families of the fishermen and their neighbors or 
sold to peddlers. * * * The size of the catfish ranges from five to 
twenty-five pounds, averaging eight or ten pounds.” In some other 
parts of Lake Erie the set-line fishery for catfish begins April 15. 
Some of these lines have as many as two thousand hooks. In Toledo 
these fish bring four and one-half cents a pound. The pound nets also 
take a good many catfish in the spring and fall. Erie receives its sup- 
ply of catfish from fishermen who operate in the lake from Erie to Elk 
creek with set-lines during the summer months. De Kay had the spe- 
cies from Buffalo, where he saw specimens weighing from twenty-five to 
thirty pounds. He states that it is usually captured by the spear. 
14. Amiurus albidus (Le Sugvr). 
The Channel Catfish. (Figure 23.) 
The white or channel catfish has a broad stout body ; its depth equals the length of 
the head and is contained four times in the totallength totail. Maxillary barbels reach 
posterior end of head ; mandibulary barbels rather short. Dorsal fin short, adipose 
well developed, caudal slightly forked, anallong. Humeral process, above pectoral, 
half length of pectoral spine, rough. D. I, 6; A. 20. 
This is the white cat or channel cat, in Philadelphia distinguished as 
the Schuylkill cat. 
The channel cat ranges from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and is 
one of the most abundant of its family in the Potomac river. It is abund- 
ant in the Susquehanna and common in the Schuylkill. 
This species reaches a length of two feet and a weight of five pounds. 
It is extremely variable with age. Old examples: have the mouth so 
much wider than in the young that they have been described as a dis- 
tinct species. The big-mouthed cat of Cope is now considered to be the 
old form of the white cat. The habits of this species agree with those 
of other species already mentioned. The name channel cat suggests a 
favorite haunt of the fish. As a food fish it is highly prized. 
