Fish Study 



177 



The johnny darter likes a swift-flowing brook 



THE JOHNNY DARTER 



Teacher's Story 



"We never tired of watching tJic little Johnny, or Tessellated darter (KoleosomQ 

 nigrum) , although our earliest aquarium friend, (and the very first specimens showed its 

 by a rapid ascent of the river weed hew 'a Johnny could climb trees,') he has still many 

 resources which we have never learned. Whenever we try to catch him ivith the hand 

 we begin -with all the uncertainty that characterized our first attempts, even if we havt 

 him in a two-quart pail. We may know him by his short fins, his first dorsal having 

 but nine spines, and by the absence of all color save a soft, yellowish brown, which is 

 freckled with darker markings. The dark brown on the sides is arranged in seven or 

 eight W -shaped marks, below which are a few flecks of the same color. Covering tha 

 sides of the back are the wavy markings and dark specks which have given the name of 

 the "Tessellated Darter;" but Bolcosoma is a preferred name, and we even prefer 'holy' 

 for short. In the spring the males have the head jet black; and this dark color often 

 extends on the back part of the body, so that the fish looks as if he had been taken by tic* 

 tail and dipped into a bottle of ink. But ivith the end of the nuptial season this cole 

 disappears and the fish regains his normal, strawy hue. 



His actions are rather bird-like; for he will strike attitudes like a tufted titmou^ 

 and he flies rather than swims through the water. He will, with mitch perseverance 

 push his body between a plant and the sides of the aquarium and balance himself on <-< 

 slender stem. Crouching catlike before a snail shell, he will snap off a horn which th, 

 unlucky owner pushes timidly out. But he is also less dainty and seizing the anim^,- 

 by the head, he dashes the shell against Hie glass or stones until he pulls the body out ^- 

 breaks the shell. "-DAVID STARR JORDAN. 



The johnny darters are, with the sticklebacks, the most amusing little 

 fish in the aquarium. They are well called darters since their movements 

 are so rapid when they are frightened that the eye can scarcely follow 

 them; and there is something so irresistibly comical in their bright, saucy 



