122 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



readily in the market to the poorer classes, especially to the negroes, 

 though for that matter they are fit to grace the table of an epicure, 

 if properly cooked. I saw one mud-cat weighing sixty pounds, 

 and one of seventy-five or more, last year — though I have seen 

 much larger ones years ago. I once saw one taken in the Ohio 

 near Cincinnati weighing 120 pounds 



Most catfish, if not all, make their nests in holes in a bank, and 

 after the young are hatched, care for them and protect th-m until 

 able to look out for themselves. 



Family ACIPENSERID.E. The Sturgeons. 



We have two sturgeons in the Ohio River, one of which (Aci- 

 penser rubicundus) is also common to Lake Erie, where it is known 

 as the rock sturgeon. It grows sometimes to a length of six feet, 

 and to nearly or quite two hundred pounds in weight, though 

 those taken in the pound-nets average but fifty pounds. The 

 sturgeon is used to but a very limited extent as food when fresh, 

 but it is in considerable demand when smoked, when it is very 

 palatable and wholesome, and a good deal of it is sold as " smoked 

 halibut." The roe, or eggs, is made into caviare. 



Another sturgeon, and one peculiar to the Ohio, is the curious 

 shovel-nosed sturgeon, which is not used as food to any extent. It 

 does not grow to quite so large a size as the rock sturgeon, but it 

 has a much longer name — Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus. 



The sturgeons are queer fishes in every way, and not the least 

 curious feature about them is their manner of feeding and the 

 character of their food. This immense fish has no teeth, and its 

 mouth is underneath, over which hang four fleshy barbels or 

 "feelers." It feeds almost entirely on small, thin-shelled mollusks, 

 principally gasteropods, or fresh water snails, which it finds in 

 comparatively shallow water, by means of its feelers, or barbels. 



The paddle-fish or spoon-billed cat {Polyodon spathula) is another 

 very queer animal, belonging to a different family, but somewhat 

 related to the sturgeons. Its body is like that of the catfish, being 

 smooth and scaleless, and without the horny plates of the stur- 

 geons. It is not unlike the sharks in some features. It snout is 

 prolonged into a flat paddle or spatula. It has no teeth in its 

 adult state, but has a very curious straining apparatus connected 

 with its gills, by means of which it feeds entirely on the smallest 

 crustaceans of the class Entomostraca, which you will remember are 



