116 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



taken by us early in June. This minnow is not hardy, and is 

 consequently an undersirable live bait. It is said by Dr. Bean 

 to be much used for food. 



HYBOGNATHUS NUBILA (Forbes) 



(Map XXVI) 



Forbes, 1878, Bull. 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., I. 2, 56 (Alburnops). 

 J. & G., 167 (Cliola); M. V., 53; J. & E., I, 215; F., 79; L., 14. 



Length 2 to 2*/2 inches; form much as in the last, the body subfusiform, 

 moderately compressed, and evenly tapered in both directions from the 

 rather deep middle-body region; depth 4 to 4.5 in length; caudal peduncle 

 as long as head or a little longer; readily distinguished from H. nuchalis by 

 smaller size, absence of a symphysial protuberance, and by the prominent 

 dark lateral band, which passes around snout. Color usually rather dusky; 

 sides dull silvery, belly yellow; a dark band along the lateral line and the 

 row of scales above, extending from a faint caudal spot forward through the 

 eye and around the snout, tipping the chin; black vertebral line before the 

 dorsal; dorsal scales thickly specked with black, those of belly plain; none 

 of the scales distinctly dark-edged; fins plain. Head 3.5 to 4.8 in length, 

 slender, conic, depressed above, being nearly quadrate in transverse section 

 behind orbits; interorbital space nearly flat, 2.8 to 3.5; eye large, high, 

 nearly circular, 2.8 to 3.1 in head; nose scarcely longer than eye, 3.5 to 4.5; 

 mouth larger than in the last species, terminal, oblique, the maxillary 3.5 

 to 4 in head, extending back of posterior nostril, and almost in front of orbit ; 

 jaws about equal, the lower lacking the hard sharp edge and the symphysial 

 protuberance found in the last species ; isthmus less than pupil. Teeth 4-4, 

 only slightly hooked, with long though narrow grinding surfaces; intestine 

 2.8 to 3.5 times the length of head and body; peritoneum black. Dorsal fin 

 with 8 rays, over ventrals and farther from muzzle than base of caudal; anal 

 rays 8; pectorals reaching % to ventrals; ventrals short of vent in females, 

 exceeding it in males. Scales 5 or 6, 36-38, 3 or 4, of uniform size and dis- 

 tribution on all parts of body; lateral line complete, very slightly decurved 

 anteriorly; scales before dorsal 13 or 14. 



Males in breeding dress with head somewhat sparsely studded with 

 small but hard and sharp tubercles; smaller tubercles sprinkled over scales 

 of predorsal region. Tuberculate males and females distended with eggs 

 taken from the Kiswaukee at Belvidere on May 12. 



This species, which was described by the senior author 

 from specimens collected from Rock River, at Oregon, 111., has 

 since been taken only rarely in this state, principally in the ex- 

 treme northwestern part. Our later collections number 2 from 

 Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties, 2 from the Kishwaukee at 

 Belvidere, 1 from Sand creek, Warsaw, and 1 from the Ohio at 

 Cairo. It seems to be essentially a western species, occurring 

 abundantly in the tributaries of the Missouri River in Missouri, 



