Alabama, 1913. 79 



CATFISHES. 



-♦<&♦• 



"Don't talk to me o' bacon fat, 

 Or taters, coon or 'possum; 



Fo' when Pse hooked a yaller cat, 

 Fse got a meal to boss 'em." 



ACQUAINTANCE with this numerous Family usually begins 

 with the bullhead, which is merely a pygmy catfish. Ex- 

 cepting the big Mississippi catfish, it is the most unattractive fish 

 inhabiting our fresh waters, and as an angler's proposition, it is 

 worse than an eel. It is easily taken on a trot-line; and the "trot- 

 line" set for all night across a stream, and hung with about twenty 

 short lines and hooks, represents the lowest depths of depravity in 

 fishing with hook and line. It is even lower than fishing with 

 four poles. 



With a tenacity of purpose worthy of a better species, the 

 bullhead ramifies throughout the muddiest rivers and creeks of 

 the United States, and in the heat of midsummer holds on whence 

 all but him have fled. He was built for mud bottoms and murky 

 waters, and so long as the mud is thin enough to swim in, and 

 deep enough to float him, he remains. When removed from his 

 native element, the tenacity of this creature is astonishing. A 

 bullhead will lie on the bank in midsummer sunshine, and breathe 

 hot air for an hour without giving up. 



The species of catfishes found in the United States number 

 about thirty, but it is recorded that elsewhere there are about 

 nine hundred and seventy more, representing in all about one 

 hundred genera. Of our series, all save four are confined to the 

 eastern half of the United States. 



