76 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



species, states that tlie little ones are protected in the mouth 

 of the parent when suddenly alarmed. The jumping of the 

 bowfin is one of its most characteristic habits. Dr Estes saw 

 them turn complete somersaults while in the air. 



The bowfin is not a food fish, its flesh being soft and un- 

 savory; yet Dr Goode found them highly esteemed as a sweet 

 morsel by the negroes of the south. The young are in great 

 demand as bait for pike and pickerel, and both these and the 

 adults are interesting for the aquarium because of their colors, 

 the ease with which they endure captivity, the peculiarities of 

 their anatomic structure and their affinities with extinct 

 ganoids. 



It is seldom taken near Ithaca and is not common at the 

 northern end of Cayuga lake. 



Series TEiiEOSTEi 

 Bony Fishes 



Subclass OSTARIOPHYSI 



Order nematognathi 



Catfishes 



/, Family siluridae: 



Catfishes 

 Genus felichthys Swaiuson 



Body rather elongate, little compressed; head depressed, 

 broad above; mouth large, the upper jaw the longer; teeth all 

 villiform, those on the vomer and palatines forming a more or 

 less perfectly crescent-shaped band; barbels four; maxillary 

 barbels bandlike, very long; two short barbels on chin; nostrils 

 close together, the posterior with a valve; nuchal region with 

 a granulated, bony buckler; fontanelle large, well forward; gill 

 membranes somewhat connected; dorsal fin short, in front of 

 ventrals, with one sharp spine and seven rays; pectorals with a 

 similar spine; pectoral spines, and sometimes dorsal spines also, 

 ending in a long, striated, bandlike filament; anal fin emarginate, 

 shorter than caudal part of vertebral column; adipose fin mod- 



