84 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY— II. 



This species is the "Great Fork-tailed Cat" of the Lakes and the 

 "Great Mississippi Cat" of the Mississippi and Ohio Eivers. I have seen 

 and identified specimens of thirty to forty pounds weight, and have seen 

 specimens which I suppose were of this species which weighed nearly a 

 hundred pounds. I have heard of Catfish weighing two or three hun- 

 dred pounds, but have never seen them, and presume they were " weighed 

 by guess". This species undoubtedly attains the largest size of any of 

 our representatives of the family. Specimens of this species of a large 

 size are in the United States National Museum, from St. John^s Eiver, 

 Florida. They appear to have a rather steeper front than the northern 

 ones, but are otherwise similar. 



As indicated above, the "J., nigricans " of Dr. Giinther is probably the 

 coenosus, as the present species has the caudal fin strongly forked. 



8. AMIURUS BOEEALIS, (Richardson) Gill. 

 The Mathemeg or Iiand Cod. 

 Pimelodus horealis, Richardson (1836), Fauna Boreali-Americana, Fishes, 135.— -Cuv. 

 & Val. (1840), XV, 130.— Storer (1846), Synopsis, 402. 

 Amivrus bor€alis,Gii.L, (1862), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 44.— Gunther (1864), 

 Cat. Fishes, v, 100.— Cope (1870), Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. 485.— Jordan & Cope- 

 land, Cheek List, 159. 



Habitat. — British America. 



I do not know this species, and it may not really have a forked caudal 

 fin. It is not improbable that its relations are with Amiurus ccenosus 

 rather than with A. nigricans. 



9. AMIUEUS ALBIDUS, {Le Sueur) Gill. 



Ziasteni Fork-tailed Cat — "Channel Cat" of the Potomac. 



(Figs. 15 and 16.) 

 Pimelodus alhidus, Le Sueur (1819), M6m. du Mus. d'Histoire Nat. v, 148. — Cuv. & 

 Val. (1840), XV, 131. 

 Amiurus alhidus, Gill (1862), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 44. 

 Pimelodus nebulosus, Cuv. «fe Val. (1840), xv, 132 (in part; not of Le Sueur). 



Amiurus nebulosus, Gunther (1864), Cat. Fishes, v, 101. 

 Pimelodus lynx, Girard (1859), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 160. 



Amiurus h/nx, Gill (1862), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 44. — Cope (1870), Proc. Am. 

 Philos. Soc. 485. — Uhler & Lugger (1876), Fishes Maryland, 152. — Jordan 

 (1876), Man. Vert. 300.— Jordan & Copeland (1876), Check List, 160. 

 Ictalurus macaskeyi, Stauffer (1869), Mombert's History Lancaster Co. Pa. 578. 

 Ictalurus JcevinsMi, Stauffer (1869), Mombert's History Lancaster Co. Pa. 578. 



Habitat. — Atlantic streams, Pennsylvania to North Carolina. 



The Pimelodus albidus of Le Sueur* seems to me rather to have been 



* Le Sueur says : " Tete large, aplatie ; * * couleur d'un blanc cendr^a » * * 

 caudale trfes ItSgferement echancrde," characters evidently belonging to the lynx rather 

 than to the catus. This is the more plain, as in describing the distinctly fork-tailed 



