796 FISHES—SILURID A. 
descended into the patent insides of a Bull-head to mine for limerick hooks, that did 
not, before the work was done, run a horn into his vital parts. But the boy seems to ex- — 
pect it, and the Bull-head enjoys it. We have seen a Bull-head lie on the bank and be- 
come dry, and to all appearances dead to all that was going on, and when a boy sat 
down on him, and got a horn in his elbow, and yelled murder, the Bull-head would grin © 
' from ear to ear, and wag his tail as though applauding for an encore. 
The Bull-head never complains. We haye seen a boy take a dull knife and proceed 
to follow a fish line down a Bull-head from head to the end of his subsequent anatomy, 
and all the time there would be an expression of sweet peace on the countenance of the 
Bull-head, as though he enjoyed it. If we were preparing a picture representing ‘‘ Re- 
signation,” for a chromo to give to subscribers, and wished to represent a scene of suf- 
fering, in which the sufferer was light-hearted, seeming to recognize that all was for the 
best, we should take for the subject a Bull-head, with a boy searching with a knife for a 
long-lost fish- hook. 
The Bull-head is a fish that has no scales, but in lieu thereof has a fine India rubber 
skin, that is as far ahead of fiddle-string material for strength and durability as possible. 
The meat of the Bull-head is not as choice as that of the Mackerel, but it fills up a 
stomach just as well, and The Sun insists that the fish commissioners shall drop the 
hatching of aristocratic fish, and give the Bull-heads a chance. 
21. AMIURUS XANTHOCEPHALUS (Rafinesque) Gill. 
Smali VWellow Catfish. 
Silurus xcanthocephalus, RAFINESQUE (1820), Quart. Journ. Sci. Lit. and Arts, London, 51. 
Pimelodus xanthocephalus, RAFINESQUE (1820), Ich. Ohiensis, 66.—K1RTLAND (1838), Rept, 
Zool. Ohio, 169, 194.—SToRER (1846), Synopsis, 405. : : 
Amiurus xanthocephalus, GiLu (1862), Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 44.—JORDAN and CoPE- 
LAND (1876), Check List, 159.—JORDAN (1877), Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist., N. Y.,—. 
Pimelodus catus, KIRTLAND, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist., v, 330 (excl. syn.). 
Amiurus albidus, JORDAN (1876), Man. Vert., 302 (not Pimelodus albidus LeSueur).—NEL- 
SON (1876), Bull. Ills. Mus. Nat. Hist., 50. 
Amiurus nebulosus, JORDAN (1877), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 45. 
Description.— Body stout and deep, much as in 4. natalis, head very broad, about as 
broad as long, the slope from snout to base of dorsal quite uneven, there being a more 
or less decided angle at the occiput; mouth very broad; dorsal spine inserted nearer 
adipose fin than snout; anal fin short and low, its rays usually 19; caudal fin truncate 
or slightly emarginate; coloration rather pale yellowish brown; head 4 in length; 
depth 4 to 44. Length 1 foot. 
Habitat, Ohio Valley. 
Diagnosis—This species resembles A. natalzs, but differs in the short 
anal fin. The broad head separates it from A. catus, and the anal fin is 
lower and smaller than in the latter species. 
Habits.—This small species abounds in the ponds and bayous of South- 
ern Ohio and Indiana. I have not noticed it in any of the streams trib- 
utary to Lake Erie. Its habits offer nothing distinctive. 
