325 



CHAP. XI. 



ON THE FAMILIES OF SILURID^ — THE CAT-FISH, OR SILURES; 

 AND OF THE COBITID^, OR LOACHES. 



(273.) The Silurid.*:, or cat-fish^ are far more nu- 

 merous than the GadidcB, nor do they yield to the 

 SalmonidcB in the number of their species or the diver- 

 sity of their forms. They are entirely fluviatile, or, at 

 least_, have never yet been found beyond the estuaries of 

 the great rivers. Of all fish yet discovered, they have 

 the longest cirri or barbels, — appendages which are 

 doubtless used to allure the prey upon which they subsist, 

 and which, mistaking these slender filaments for worms, 

 bring themselves, unconsciously, within the grasp of their 

 hidden foe. The SiluridcB, from all we know of their 

 manners, lie concealed in the mud ; and hence they are 

 most numerous in such of the tropical rivers as flow 

 over soft ground, and whose course is not rapid. Some 

 of the Asiatic species are more especially found in ponds, 

 tanks, and even ditches : here they lie concealed in holes 

 along the bank ; or are half hid beneath the mud and 

 weeds at the bottom. Only one species, the Silurus 

 Glanis Linn, ( jig. 76.) has yet been found in Europe : it 

 is the largest of all the freshwater fish yet discovered ; and 

 seems more especially appropriated to the great rivers of 

 Austria, where individuals have sometimes been captured 

 of an enormous size; in Pomerania they have been 

 taken from twelve to fifteen feet long, with a mouth 

 sufficiently capacious, as it is said, to gorge a child of 

 six years old; another, captured at Writzen on the 

 Oder, is stated to have weighed 4001b. The flesh is 

 white, and of an agreeable taste. An attempt was made to 



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