HABITS OF SOME OF THE COMMERCIAL CAT-FISHES. 
405 
heard in all directions, although a lot of garbage thrown overboard would not fail 
to raise more or less of them during the day. The cat-fish here were wary of a 
baited hook, and although freely eating of pieces of bread or meat floating at the 
surface, if a hook and line were attached, it would never be touched. Yet a hook 
baited with meat or fish and sunk would usually be satisfactorily effective, especially 
if “bream” ( Lepomis ) began to bite first. The presence of other more readily 
biting fish seemed to attract the cat-fish and render them bolder. Large cat-fish 
would take a small baited “bream” hook much more quickly than they would a 
large hook. The mud cat here bit no more greedily than the channel cat. It. might 
be well to state in this connection that the channel cats (Tctalurus jmnctatus and 
Ictalurus furcatus) are sufficiently game fighters to give an angler not too fastidious 
a very satisfactory battle. These two species might justly be classed as game fishes. 
In northern lakes and streams the bullhead or hornpout does not always seem to 
be so wily as the southern cat-fishes were usually during the daytime. Although 
the best time to angle for hornpout is about dusk or after dark, they are not infre- 
quently caught in the daytime, much to the annoyance of the “still fisher” for black 
bass, pickerel, and other fishes. When hornpouts begin to bite, if other fish are 
desired, it is necessary to seek another berth. They will take live-fish or dead-fish 
bait or frogs with equal readiness. If, however, hornpouts are wanted, angleworms 
are the best bait. 
Spawn-eating habits. — Dean has referred to the fish -egg-eating propensity of 
Ameiurus nebulosus , and to show that this species is not alone in this ovivorous habit 
it may be stated that on the Potomac River a seine haul was estimated to contain 
about 10,000 cat-fish ( Ameiurus catus and Ameiurus nebulosus). A large number of 
these fish were opened and their stomach contents examined. They were found to 
have been feeding almost exclusively upon herring ( Pomolobus ) eggs, to such an extent 
that their stomachs were distended with the eggs. Mr. Harron, at whose fishery this 
observation was made, told the writer that although these large hauls were not fre- 
quent, occasionally much larger ones were made. In Albemarle Sound, during one 
shad season, the writer frequently found cat-fish full of shad roe, but cat-fish were not 
abundant at this time. It is obvious, then, that cat-fishes are very destructive to the 
eggs of other species. 
Under the heading “Salmon not injured by cat-fish,” in the Bulletin of the U. S. 
Fish Commission for 1887, page 56, Mr. Horace Dunn makes the statement: 
Word lias gone out that cat-fish have been taken in Suisun Bay [California] whose stomachs 
were full of young fish and salmon spawn. Upon this statement the cry has been made that the cat- 
fish were destroying both spawn and young salmon. The facts of the case are that the cat-fish were 
caught in the vicinity of a salmon cannery, and that the spawn was among the fish offal thrown into 
the bay, and the young fish were “split-tails” and not valuable for food purposes. 
The facts of the case as stated do not prove that cat-fish may not be injurious to 
salmon. The chances are that if they would eat salmon spawn as offal, and living 
“split-tails,” they would eat naturally deposited spawn and young salmon of the 
“split- tail” size if they had access to them. 
Dr. Hugh M. Smith saj’s (Bull. U. S. F. C. 1895, p. 387): 
The cat-fish have a reputation among the California fishermen of being large consumers of fry 
and eggs of salmon, sturgeon, shad, and other fishes. This accords with their known habits in other 
waters. Mr. Alexander’s examination, however, of the contents of several hundred stomachs of cat- 
