CHAPTER LII 
THE ORDER OF CATFISHES 
NEMATOGNA Till 
Acquaintance with this numerous Family usu- 
ally begins with the bullhead, which is merely a 
I pygmy catfish. 
/ Even when a lad in prairie-land, thirsting for 
open water and aquatics, and looking upon every 
mile of running water as an enchanted realm, 
the bullhead did not appeal to me as a genuine 
fish.. Even when most eager to “quit, and go 
a-fishing, and call it half a day,” we drew the line 
at that ill-shaped, skinny body, ugly head and 
wide-gaping mouth with barbels that suggest 
dripping saliva. To me it was, and still is, a 
repulsive creature, and its only feature worthy 
of respect is the outfit of sharp and dangerous 
spines with which its dorsal and pectoral fins 
are furnished. 
Excepting the big Mississippi catfish, it is the 
most unattractive fish inhabiting our fresh wa- 
ters, 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 
416 
and hooks, represents the lowest depths of de- 
pravity 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 re- 
moved from his native element, the 
tenacity of life of this creature is 
astonishing. A bullhead will lie on 
the bank in midsummer sunshine, 
and breathe hot air for an hour with- 
out giving up. 
The species of catfishes found in 
the United States number about 
thirty, but it is recorded that else- 
where there are about 970 more, 
representing in all about 100 genera. 
Of our series, all save four are con- 
fined to the eastern half of the 
United States. 
The Mississippi Catfish , 1 or Blue 
Cat, of the Mississippi River and Gulf 
States is the giant of its genus. Even 
when alive and in good health, it is a 
very ugly fish, — heavy-paunched and 
mud-colored. It looks like a fish modelled out 
of river-mud. I saw a specimen taken at Bur- 
lington, Iowa, which weighed 93 pounds, and 
have heard of others exceeding 100 pounds. Jor- 
dan and Evermann say the “record specimen 
weighed 150 pounds,” and was caught at St. 
Louis; but the mischievous evenness of the figure 
casts doubt upon the reliability of the record. 
Very naturally, the tons of edible flesh annually 
contributed by this fish to our national food 
supply are not wasted. Thousands of persons 
1 Ic-tu-lu'rus fur-ca'tus. 
Drawn by J. Carter Beard. 
COMMON BULLHEAD. 
