The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-02-28
CATFISH HAD ANOTHER EYE.
Bullying Rangers Of the Ponds That We're
the Scayengers Of the Seas.


the scayengers Of the Seas.
ssProf. Brown Goode compares the
taste of catfish meat to pate de fois
gras,' Prof Bashford Dean of the Col
lege Of the City Of New York says in 9
paper in the Fish Commissioners COM
ing report. The catfish is q quarrelsome,
hardy and mud-loving. fish. Fish cult
wrists affect to despise it because it is
ugly and q fighter. It grows some
times to three pounds in weight, but or
dinarily it ranges from half 9 pound to
pound. Nearly all fish die when con-
fined short time in muddy, stagnant
water, but when the vivifying oxygen
is exhausted from the water the catfish
rises to the surface, thrusts its snont
out of the water and sucks air into it's
stomach. Through it's porous skin also
it takes in the oxygen Of the air. Like
the frogs, catfish hibernates, refusing
food after November and burying itself
in the ooze at the bottom of pond in
December. It reappears in February
or March, or after a thunderstorm, some
naturalists aver. Then it is thin and
ravenOus.
Catfish were planted not long ago in
Lake Ronkonkoma, and fishermen com
plain that they are ogres; as Thoreau
wrote: ';a bloodthirsty and bullying set
of rangers, ever with lance at rest. :"
They pause in their rowing, sink head
foremost in the mud, and wait for their
prey, with their black n1uzzles just pro-
truding from the ooze while their little
~ II, IN,
direction. The catfish will bolt any
thing from bit of salt mackerel to
piece Of a tin can. Its destruction Of
the young o. other fish is enough to
breed f II famine in a lake or pond.
Of Their own young, however, they are
yer, careful. The adult fish always
swims with the young fry wandering
near, exactly as chickens accompany
the mother hen, and at the sign
to the mother fish and get behind
her for projections, while, all alert,
she waves defiance with her whis-
kers. When aroused catfish give hid
den and fearful battle with their barbs.
They fight most in the breeding season,
males battling with males. OF twelve
catfish observed by Prof. Dean, nine
showed marks of terrific strife. The
soft parts of their fins and tails were
torn to tatters and four eyes were de
stroyed, one old male catfish being
blind in both eyes, while the lower
third Of it's tail and half Of the left pee
toral fin were missing.
Prof Dean finds evidences that the
catfish has rudimentary eye III the
middle of it's forehead. There is a
medium skull opening which appears to
connect the surface Of the head with the
brain. There are evidences that a lens
once existed, and it is believed from
microscopic examination of the brain
that the opening affords a sensation Of
light to the fish. Prof. Dean argues
that the catfish is descendant Of
monster placodernls that once existed
in the waters of the earth in remote
geological epoch: that from the known
habits of the catfish in bu1ying itself in
the mud, with only it's nose sticking out
of the ooze, it must have been in it's
original size terrible scourger of the
sea, able te sea before, behind, and
above, while concealed, ready to dart
ON it's urey