THE ATLANTIC SLOPE NATURALIST. 



3i 



Gainesville, Georgia, (514 miles dis- 

 tant. 



What mysterious power prompts or 

 enables the bird to seek its home. 

 Instinct ? Surely not sight ; nor smell ; 

 nor hearing! What? A manifesta- 

 tion of force in the form of a myste- 

 rious magnetism ? Or shall we ascribe 

 it to the sense of direction! 



The speed attained by a bird varies. 

 Being influenced by the wind and 

 weather conditions. An average speed 

 for 100 miles, of 197(> yards a minute 

 was recorded in 1897, while 1603 yards 

 per minute is the record for 505 

 miles. The endurance of a trained 

 homing pigeon is beyond compre- 

 hension. 



A Year With a Cat-fish. 



By Edgar S. Jones, Lovington, Illinois. 



After the ice in the river has melted 

 and the rains of April have caused the 

 creeks and rivers of the Mississippi 

 valley to rise, just that soon you will 

 find the cat-fish coming from his home 

 in the mud-bed of the stream or from 

 beneath the logs that are very common 

 in the slow-flowing streams of the 

 west, and starting up the stream in 

 search of food as well as seeking his 

 home of the year before. 



This migratory movement of fishes 

 of inland waters as compared with 

 that of birds is more pronounced in 

 the cat-fish than in any other species. 



He has had but little to eat during 

 the winter months and is always alert 

 to secure food, such as bits of grass, 

 insects or smaller fishes. 



He travels up and down the river 

 as it rises and falls, but by the first of 

 June has chosen a part of the river in 

 which he generally stays until the 

 rise of the river in the autumn. Great 

 schools of cat-fish make their upward 

 and downward migrations (the first 

 general movement does not begin how- 

 ever, until the hatching season is prin- 

 cipally over), but by the first of July 

 at farthest they begin to isolate them- 



selves, excepting the younger ones, 

 which stay in schools. By the first 

 of June he has gotten over his hungry 

 spell, going in quest of food during 

 the night, beginning shortly after 

 dusk, along the shallow water near 

 the banks or ripples procuring frogs, 

 cray-fish and other species of fish, 

 lying in wait for fish, often capturing 

 those equalling him in size. 



Fishermen find that bait placed two 

 or three inches from the top of the 

 water near the edge of the boat is gen- 

 erally safe from the turtle and cray- 

 fish, but easily found by the cat-fish in 

 his nightly journey. 



His summer home is commonly 

 found in hollow logs or small recesses 

 in the sides of the banks. Very often, 

 during the months of August and Sep- 

 tember, when the water is at the low- 

 est, men who are engaged in capturing 

 the cat-fish for market, place hollow 

 logs in favorable positions for the fish 

 and also make excavations in the banks, 

 making tempting places for the larger 

 ones to take up their abode 011 their 

 return in the spring The cat-fish has 

 been captured by this method weigh- 

 ing as much as fifty pounds. 



In the early summer, quantities of 

 grain are placed near these places, to 

 further attract the attention of the 

 fish. Frequently, the king-fisher mis- 

 judges the size of the cat-fish when near 

 the surface, and consequently is very 

 often seized by him and drawn beneath 

 the water. He is the scavenger of the 

 river fishes. His principal food dur- 

 ing the fall months being decayed ani- 

 mal matter, seeming to relish most 

 that which has undergone the most 

 putrefaction. In the late summer, if 

 the streams become very low, cat-fish of 

 considerable size may be seen making 

 the ripples ; but if the rivers do not 

 lower, this is seldom seen. As the 

 fall rains begin he starts down the 

 stream, collecting in small schools 

 during the winter months. Many 

 times he can be seen through the ice 

 at the edge of the water, remaining 



