148 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



This common, large, and well-known minnow, one of the 

 most conspicuous in our series, is unequally distributed through- 

 out the state, very abundantly so in its northern two thirds. It 

 occurs also in the hill streams of southern Illinois, but is nearly 

 absent from the lower Illinoisan glaciation, whence we have 

 taken it indeed but three times — from two localities on the Little 

 Wabash and from one on the headwaters of the Kaskaskia at the 

 northern boundary of this area. It is especially a minnow of 

 creeks and the smaller rivers — our coefficients for which are 3 

 and 2.45 respectively — scarcely ever occurring in either lakes or 

 the larger streams. It shows also a marked preference for clear 

 waters, which corresponds to its avoidance of the lower Illinoisan 

 glaciation. Its coefficient of preference for a clean bottom is 2.2. 

 Outside our territory it is reported from the entire eastern 

 United States (including the Great Lakes) from the Rocky 

 Mountains to the Atlantic, with the exception of Texas and the 

 southeastern region from the Neuse River on the north to the 

 Alabama on the west. It also ranges into Canada, from New 

 Brunswick and the River St. Lawrence and its tributary streams 

 in Quebec to the Assiniboin in Manitoba. 



Somewhat more than a third of the food of 21 specimens 

 examined by us consisted of vegetable objects, a large per- 

 centage of which were algae, and the greater part of the remainder 

 was insects, both aquatic and terrestrial, the former, however, 

 largely preponderant. A single specimen had eaten only fishes. 

 The crustacean ratio was, as usual, insignificant. A single 

 aquatic worm (Lumbriculus) was observed in one. The individ- 

 uals of this little collection varied widely in respect to the 

 food they had last taken, five, for example, having eaten insects 

 only, while two had eaten little or nothing but algae and other 

 vegetable objects. 



Its spawning season begins about May 1 and continues to 

 the last of June. Spring males have the top of the head, the 

 tip of the snout, and the predorsal region covered with rather 

 large tubercles. This minnow takes a worm or a grasshopper 

 readily, and is one of the fishes most likely to be found on a 

 boy's string. Although it sometimes grows to a length of eight 

 inches, it is usually too small to be of importance as a pan-fish, 

 but Dr. Henshaw recommends it as the best live bait for black 

 bass. 



