HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Ledge ilO years old, 100 yards iu length, 6 feet wide 

 at the top, 20 feet wide at the bottom, and 32 or 35 

 feet high. Speaking of the old trees of North 

 Wales, 1 must mention that there is a splendid 

 avenue at Wynastery, near Wrexham, upwards of 

 a mile iu length, formed of fine oaks, elms, limes, 

 and beeches : one ash, called the " King," measures 

 3G feet in circumference. There are likewise many 

 fine oaks mentioned in the " Natural History of 

 Staffordshire," page 40S, which are worthy of 

 investigation. 



It will be with great pleasure I shall look forward 

 to further information upon the subject of old trees 

 in the pages of your magazine. 



E. Edwakds, 



THE DARTER. 



{Boleosoma OlmstecU, Storer.) 

 By Chakles C. Abbott, M.D. 



A TOT all of our little fishes are "minnows," 

 -J-^ although a very common want of knowledge 

 of fish generally results in persistently calling every- 

 thing not a shad or sturgeon, a "little minnie." 

 Now, these ignorant people notwith- 

 standing, there are pretty little fish in 

 all of our streaais that bear as little 

 relationship to small cyprinoids or 

 minnows, as do these to the bulky 

 sturgeons that visit our large rivers. 

 Among all these little fishes there are 

 none that are more interesting to the 

 field naturdlist than the pretty Darters, 

 or Etheostomoids, as we prefer to call 

 them. 



In the upper Maters of the Delaware 

 river (U.S.A.), where jagged outcroppingsoftriassic 

 sandstone and smooth glacial boulders dropped here 

 and there in the bed of the stream, make little 

 eddies in the current, and short stretches of smooth 

 sand bottom, just below the bases of such projecting 

 rocks, there are to be found, from June to Novem- 

 ber, dozens of bright yellow and deep black fishes, 

 narrow-bodied, extravagantly supplied with fins, 

 that vary in length from one inch to five; and it 

 will be noticed, if you approach quietly, that they 

 are always resting upon the sand, or some flat 

 pebble, or smooth projecting ledge of the rock about 

 which they linger. If you disturb them, away they 

 go, with a most laborious movement of all their fins, 

 that send the fish but a yard or two, at most, on- 

 ward and upward, when they again sink to the 

 bottom ; uidess a second effort is made to give them 

 an additional " send." Take it altogether, it is the 

 poorest apology for locomotion that we have ever 

 seen in either fur, feather, or fin. Why, actually, 

 if you find them in shallow water, which is fre- 

 quently the case, you need but follow them up for a 



S&i2 



little way, and you can run them down. A dozen 

 yards, without rest, tires them out, and they can 

 be caught with the hand. 



The most abundant of the several species of this 

 family found in New Jersey is the one we have here 

 figured, the Tessellated darter, Boleosoma Olmstedi 

 {B. tessellatum, in vol. i. of " Gunther's Catalogue 

 of Acanthopterygian Fishes," p. 77). Although^ 

 like all the family, it is a poor swimmer, it cannot 

 be called a sluggish or inactive fish. Its prominent 

 eyes readily spy out wee crawling creatures, that 

 soon escape the notice of the ichthyologist, as he 

 watches the fish before him ; and when such minute 

 forms as Etheostomoids largely feed on, do coihe 

 creeping near, the little " darter " puts his every fin 

 in rapid motion, and pounces down on the unsuspect- 

 ing object, which it appears never to fail in seizing ; 

 and then, with every fin wide-spread, the fish sails 

 off, with stately mien, that is somewhat ludicrous, 

 and settles down quietly, in the spot from which 

 it started, to leisurely devour the morsel it has 

 secured. 



Unlike many of the Etheostomoids, the males of 

 this species are not arrayed in gorgeous colours in 

 ilie spring, but are merely brighter in their tints, 



"^ ^ ^ V 



,<-^ V - \^^. 



•'■<''%>» ^ N^^ 





^ 



Fig. 48. The Darter {Boleosoma Olmstedi). 



the yellow and pale brown colouring especially be- 

 coming orange, or even red ; but, while we have often 

 noticed this deepening of the coloration, and also 

 found many females heavy with ripe and ripening 

 ova, \\Q have not yet one fact to relate with refer- 

 ence to their breeding habits. Just how and where 

 the ova are deposited, we cannot tell ; but tliis we 

 do know, that soon after the 1st of June, lisuall//, 

 the darters, young and old, make their appearance, 

 not only in the river, where they are, perhaps, most 

 abundant, but in nearly all our smaller streams, and, 

 selecting such spots as peculiarly suit them, they 

 take up their abode for the summer and autumn, 

 and, indeed, until winter, when they hybernate in 

 the mud, burrowing down to the depth of several 

 inches (?) 



There is, perhaps, no species of fish that is found 

 in such a variety of localities as this tessellated 

 darter ; and be the bottom of the stream muddy, 

 sandy, stony, smooth, or rough, they find an appa- 

 rently comfortable halntation, provided the water is 

 constantly changed, and not too warm. So far as 



