788 FISHES SILURID^. 



Habitat, Canada to Florida, Texas and Montana, abundant in all suitable waters east 

 of the Alleghanies. 



Diagnosis. — This most abundant species may be known from the other 

 white Cat-fishes by the position of the eye, which is not wholly in ad- 

 vance of the middle of the head. 



Habits. — This species is very abundant in the Ohio River and its larger 

 tributaries, and is found, but less frequently, in Lake Erie. It does not 

 usually ascend small streams. It is used for food, and is of some value, 

 but the flesh is perhaps hardly as good as that of most of the Amiuri. 

 The species prefers clear waters, being averse to mud, and is much less 

 tenacious of life than the Amiuri are. Its singular form and silvery 

 colors renders it an attractive aquarium fish. 



The idea is prevalent that this is our largest Cat-fish. I find no good 

 evidence of the truth of this supposition. The largest specimens I have 

 ever seen would hardly weigh over five or six pounds. And all the large 

 " Blue Cats " which have been shown me belong to Amiurus nigricans. I 

 have seen the adult of Ichthsdurus punctaius put on the hook as "live 

 bait," to attract Amiurus nigricans, at Cumberland Falls, in Kentucky. 



Genus 11. AMIURUS. Eafinesque. 



Silurus et Pimelodus sp., LlNNiEUS, and all writers prior to 1802. 



Ameiurus, Eafinbsqub (1820), Ich. Ohiensis, 65 (as section under sub-genus lotalurus of 



Pimelodus.) 

 Amiurus, Gill (1863), Proc. Bost. Soo. Nat. Hist., 50, and of recent writers generally. 

 Ameitrue, Cope (1864), Proc. Acad. Nat. Soi. Phila., 231. 

 Gronias, Cope (1864), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 231. 



Type, Silurus oupreus, Eafinesque. 



Etymology, a, privitive ; meiourus, curtailed, in allusion to the entire caudal fin. 



Body moderately elongated, robust, anteriorly vertically ovate, and scarcely com- 

 pressed ; caudal peduncle also robust, but much compressed, and at its end evenly con- 

 vex. 



Head large, wide, laterally expanded, above ovate and in profile cuneiform ; supra^ 

 occipital extended little posteriorly and terminating in a more or less acute point, 

 which is entirely separate from the second interspinal buckler ; the skin covering the 

 bones is thick. 



Ejes rather small, in one species covered by the skin ; mouth large, terminal, trans- 

 verse, the upper javr in most species the longer ; jaws often equal, the lower, in one or 

 two species distinctly projecting. 



Teeth subulate, aggregated in broad bands on the intermaxillaries and dentaries; the 

 intermaxillary band is convex in front, of equal breadth, and abruptly truncated near 

 the insertion of the intermaxillaries ; the lower dental band is anteriorly semicircular, 

 attenuated to the angles of the mouth. 



Branchiostegal membrane on each side with eight or nine rays in typical species; ten 

 or eleven in two or three aberrant species ; dorsal situated over the interval between 



