436 AMERICAN FISHES. 
I have never found this fish in really muddy water. Although called the 
“¢ Mud Sucker’’ in the brooks, it is most characteristically a fish of the 
running streams. This species reaches a length of about two feet, and is 
often caught in its spawning season by means of a spear or snare. It is, 
like C. commersoni, a ‘‘ boy’s fish,’’ and not worth the eating. 
It is hardy in the aquarium, and like its handsome cousin, Catostomus 
melanops, the Striped Sucker is recommended for domestication by Cope. 
The suckers afford sport of an exciting kind to those who know how to 
capture them with snares of horse-hair or fine wire. I have thus caught 
them in Dutchess County, N. Y., where this method is greatly in favor. 
Vast quantities are taken in the sluiceways of dams, and by spearing by 
torch-light or ‘‘ weequashing.’’ 
THE CHUB SUCKER—ERIMYZON SUCETTA, 
The “Chub Sucker,” Zrimyzon sucetta, the “ Sweet Sucker” or 
‘«Creek-fish,’’ is one of the most abundant and widely diffused of the 
Suckers, being found from Maine to Texas. It is one of the smallest 
species, reaching a length of little more than a foot. A closely related 
species abounds in Florida, where it was first collected by the author, and 
has been named by Jordan Zrimyzon Goodei. Hallock says that the 
“¢ Chub-sucker’’ is often called the ‘‘ Barbel.”’ 
The Black Horse, Cycleptus elongatus, also called ‘‘ Missouri Sucker,”’ 
‘¢Gourd-seed Sucker,’’ ‘‘Suckerel’’ and ‘‘Shoenaher’’ is found in the 
river channels of the Ohio and Mississippi. It reaches a considerable 
size, weighing sometimes fifteen pounds, and is said to be a much finer 
