MITCHILL ON THE FISHES OP NEW-YORK. 433 



Order, abdominales. 



SILURUS. CATFISH. 



Generic character. 



Head large, depressed. Mouth wide, bearded by long tentacula. 

 Bod j lengthened, naked. First of the pectoral fins, or of the first 

 dorsal fin, toothed backward. 



1. Common fresh-water Catfish. (Silurus catus.^) With the hinder 

 dorsal fin adipose, twenty rays in the anal fin, and eight beards. 



Has eight cirrhi : two large ones from his mouth like whiskers, two 

 on the upper jaw above and behind them, and four depending from the 

 chin. 



Head and body mucous, without scales. First rays of the pectoral 

 fins spinous, with a reversed serrated edge behind. Two bony spines 

 connected with them, and projecting backward, so as to show their 

 points on each side of the body at the skin. 



First ray of the first dorsal fin spinous. Second dorsal fleshy. Anal 

 fin has twenty rays. 



Rays, Br. 7. P. 8. V. 3. D. 7.— 2d fleshy. A. 20. C. 21. 



2. Salt-water Catfish. (Silurus marinus.) 



A splendid fish, twenty inches long ; four inches deep ; and three 

 and a half wide. Taken June 30th, 1814. 



Two whiskers, between five and six inches long, projecting from the 

 upper lip, near the corners of the mouth. 



Two cirrhi, near one inch and a half long, depending from the chin, 



A bony ray in front of the first dorsal fin two inches and a half long ; a 

 cartilage spliced to it, as it were, and continued two and a half inches 

 longer, making together a dorsal projection five inches long. 



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