CHAPTER IV 

 CAT-FISH CULTUEB 



It is possible to take eggs from the cat-fish, 

 but there is no necessity for doing so. Natural 

 fertilisation is so nearly perfect, the care given 

 by the parent to incubation and to the young is 

 so faithful and unremitting, that it is needless 

 for the fish-culturist to increase his stock by the 

 iartificial expression of eggs. Moreover, on ao- 

 coimt of the spiny rays on the pectoral and dor- 

 sal fins, the operation of stripping is unpleas- 

 ant, and likely to be very painful, to the man 

 who attempts it. 



Spotted Cat-fish. — There is one species, the 

 spotted cat-fish, which has thus far defied every 

 effort made to handle it successfully, even by 

 pond-culture. Hitherto the greatest experts 

 in the United States have been forced to ac- 

 knowledge complete defeat. Spotted cat-fish, 



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