80 Thiriij-seventJi. Aiimial Meetiiuf 



iuul calico bass, the habits may not be the same ; in fact, in most 

 cases we know that they are not the same, and we should be very 

 sure that the species that we thinl- we have is the species that we 

 really have. We all know, of course, that it is very difficult to 

 determine some of the species of catfish, particularly the common 

 black bullhead and the common bullhead, the ameiurus nebulo- 

 sus, as distinguished from the amevunis melas, and sometimes 

 shipments have been made of some of the little stone cats under 

 the impression that they were yellow cats, or that they would 

 grow to be important commercial fishes ; so that the only point 

 I want to make is that we should be sure of the species that we 

 have in hand. 



Dr. Henshall : I endorse what Dr. Evermann has said alwut 

 the catfish making holes in the bank. I presume all of them do 

 that. 



^Ir. Worth : The catfish from an economic fish cultural 

 standpoint, has interested me considerably, more especially since 

 I have noticed that Dr. Henshall claimed to have hatched them, 

 and that fact taken in conjunction with the statement of Dr. Jor- 

 dan that he regards catfish as ])eing as good a food fish as the 

 blass bass, makes the subject an important one. For my own 

 part I do not care for catfish, l)ut I know that it is a good food 

 fish in a general way ; and the point that I wish to make is this : 

 It seems that as a rule, as a general thing, the spotted catfish 

 cannot Ije propagated in ponds, but under exceptional conditions 

 that it may be successfully propagated. Now if that is the case, 

 if it can be propagated and does not ordinarily reproduce itself 

 in ponds, it gives that fish an advantage over any other repre- 

 sentative of the finny trilje tliat we have in the T'^nited States. 

 It gives us a good food fish that will take a miscellaneous diet 

 and that will not reproduce while we are feeding and growing 

 it to table size. 



President: Tlie chair will state tliat the introduction of the 

 spotted catfish and the fork-tail catfish of the Mississippi valley 

 into the Potomac river has proved one of the most interesting 

 and important experiments in acclimatization that we have un- 

 dertaken. A few fingerling s]iotted catfish were placed in the 

 Potomac river near Washington a niiinber of vears ago, and in 



