APRIL, 1910. FISHES OF CHICAGO MEEK AND HILDEBRAND. 323 



moderate, the maxillary reaching front of orbit; cleft of mouth 2.9 

 to 3.2 in head; snout bluntish, 2.9 to 3.7; eye 3.2 to 3.5; spinous and 

 soft dorsals very little separate at base; separation of ventrals 

 nearly equal to their width at base ; gill membranes free from isthmus ; 

 cheek opercles and nape scaled; breast naked ; ventral surface naked. 



FIG. 68. SHUMARD'S DARTER 



Cottagaster shumardi (Girard). (From Forbes and Richardson.) 



Color brownish olive, blotched and mottled with darker; sides 

 with 1 5 to 1 8 dark blotches ; a faint dark band in front of eye and one 

 below it ; a black blotch on front and one on back of spinous dorsal ; 

 soft dorsal and caudal barred. 



Length 2>^ to 3 inches. 



This fish ranges from the Great Lakes through the Mississippi 

 Valley to Arkansas. 



Genus Diplesion Rafinesque. 



Body rather elongate, little compressed; mouth small, its gape 

 nearly horizontal; premaxillaries protractile downwards; maxillary 

 joined for most of its length to the skin of the preorbital; no teeth 

 on vomer or palatines ; ventral surface covered with ordinary scales ; 

 gill membranes broadly connected across the isthmus; pyloric 

 caeca 4. 



Diplesion blennioides Rafinesque. GREEN-SIDED DARTER. 



Head 4.0 to 4.6; depth 5.3 to 6.3; D. xm to xiv 13 to 14; A. n, 

 8 or 9; scales 57 to 64. 



Body rather elongate, slightly compressed ; head short with blunt 

 snout; interorbital space flat, narrow; mouth small, its gape hori- 

 zontal, the maxillary reaching front of orbit; cleft of mouth 3.1 to 

 4.0 in head; snout blunt, slightly overhanging the small mouth, 3.1 

 to 3.7 in head; eye 3.1 to 3.6; spinous and soft dorsals joined or 



