16 FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



17. Amiurus nebulosus (Le Svevx). 
-The Common Catfish. (Figure 25.) 
The common catfish has a very stout body, broad head and a short stout caudal 
peduncle. The depth of body about equals length of head, and is contained from 
three and one-half to four and one-half times in length. Barbels eight. Maxillary 
barbels as long as head. Dorsal profile from tip of snout to dorsal fin straight and 
rather steep. Mouth wide and terminal. Teeth awl-shaped, in broad bands on the 
inter-maxillaries and dentaries. Dorsal situated in front of middle of body, short 
and high. Adipose fin stout. Anallarge, its base equalling length of head. Caudal 
square or slightly emarginate. D. I, 6; A. 20 to 22; V.I, 7. 
Length of specimen examined seven inches ; from Susquehanna riverat Havre de 
Grace, Maryland. 
This is known as the common eatfish, bull-head, horn-pout, bull-pout 
and minister. This species has a wider distribution than the white cat, 
its range including New England and southward to South Carolina, west 
to Wisconsin and southwest to Texas. It has also been transferred from 
the Schuylkill to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, California, 
where it has multipiied so rapidly that is now one of the commonest 
fishes of those streams. This is the commonest catfish in Lake Eric and 
its tributaries. The species reaches a maximum length of eighteen 
inches and a weight of four pounds, but the average size of market spe- 
cimens is much smaller. In the.lower portion of the Susquehanna color 
varieties of this species are not uncommon. One of them appears to be 
the same as the Amiurus marmoratus of Holbrook ; thissupposed color 
variety is found also from Illinois to Flerida. The lower Susquehanna 
has furnished, also, some singularly colored examples of this fish, dis- 
tinguished by large areas of jet black combined with lemon and white. 
These freaks are among the most interesting and beautiful observed in 
this family of fishes. 
From Jordan’s Manual of the Vertebrates I quote Thoreau’s account of 
the habits of this species: “The horned pout are ‘dull and blundering 
fellows’, fond of the mud, and growing best in weedy ponds and rivers 
without current. They stay near the bottom, moving slowly about with 
their barbels widely spread, watching for anything eatable. They will 
take any kind of bait, from anangle-worm to a piece of a tin tomato-can, 
without coquetry, and they seldom fail to swallow the hook. They are 
very tenacious of life, ‘opening and shutting their mouths for half an 
hour after their heads have been cut off.’ They spawn in spring, and the 
old fishes lead the young in great schools near the shore, seemingly car- 
ing for them as the hen for her chickens.” 
18. Amiurus melas (RarinesqQue). 
The Small Black Catfish. 
The body of the small black catfish isstout, short and deep. Its depth is contained 
about three and one-half times in length to tail; in very deep examples only three 
and one-fifth times. The length of the head is contained three and one-half times in 
