FISHES OF NEW YORK 509 



of brilliant colors during the breeding season render it unusually 



attractive. 



Genus COTTOGASTER Putnam 



Body rather robust, little compressed; head moderate, 

 bluntish; mouth moderate or small; the lower jaw included; 

 premaxillaries protractile or occasionally (in s h u m a r d i) 

 joined by a narrow frenum to the frontal region; maxillary not 

 adherent to the preorbital; teeth on vomer; gill membranes 

 nearly separate; scales ctenoid; the middle line of the belly 

 anteriorly naked or with caducous scales; lateral line continu- 

 ous; dorsal fins large, the second usually smaller than the first 

 and smaller than the anal; anal spines two, the first the longer; 

 pyloric ; caeca three ; vertebrae 18+20=38 (copelandi); skull 

 short, the frontal region not very narrow, parietals little convex 

 transversely, sutures distinct; no supra-occipital crest. Colora- 

 tion not brilliant. Size moderate. 



250 Cottogaster copelandi (Jordan) 

 Copeland's Darter 



Bolcosoma tessellation THOMPSON. Appendix Hist. Vermont, 5, 1853, not of 



DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 20, 1842. 



Rlieocrypta copelandi JORDAN, Bull. 10, TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 9, 1877. 

 Cottogaster putnami JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, TT. S. Nat. Mus. 498, 1883. 

 Cottogaster copelandi JORDAN EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1045, 



1896. 



Body rather slender and elongate, the depth being contained 

 from five and one half to six and one half times in the length; 

 head rather large and long, somewhat narrowed, resembling that 

 of B o 1 e o s o m a . Its length is contained from three and 

 three fourths to four and one fourth times in the length of the 

 body. Mouth small, horizontal, subinferior; cheeks naked; 

 opercles and neck each with few scales; throat naked; ventral 

 plates well developed; scales moderate, strongly ctenoid; 

 pectoral as long as head. D. X to XII-10 to 12; A. II, 8 or 9. 

 Scales 6-44 to 56-8. 



Color brownish olive; a series of rather small, horizontally 

 oblong, black blotches along the lateral line, forming an inter- 

 rupted lateral band; back tessellated; blackish streaks forward 



