NOTROPIS 147 



laneous plant structures, including seeds, anthers, and pollen, and 

 fragments of grass-like vegetation. 



Females apparently about to spawn have been taken by us from 

 May 21 to June 12, but others which had not yet deposited their 

 eggs occur in our collections occasionally up to the middle of August. 

 Breeding males have the head largely tuberculate, together with a 

 pad-like tuberosity, closely set with tubercles, on the snout. The 

 scales of the upper part of the sides in front of the dorsal fin are 

 likewise tuberculate. 



NOTROPIS CORNUTUS (Mitchill) 

 (common shiner) 



Mitchill, 1817, Am. Month. Mag., I, 289 (Cyprinus). 



G., VII, 249 (Leuciscus); J. & G., 186 (Minnilus), 192 (M. plumbeolus) ; M. V., 58 



(megalops); J.&E.,I,281;N.,47 (Luxilus) ; J., 57 (Luxilus) ; F., 7 7 (megalops) ; 



L., 17. 



This species, in size one of the largest of our minnows, is distinguished 

 especially by the great depth of the exposed portions of the scales and (in 

 spring males) by the brilliant and more or less mottled salmon-pink 

 coloration. Length 5 to 8 inches; body elongate in the young; adults 

 shorter and much compressed, the sides nearly vertical; depth 3.3 to 

 4.4 in length; anterior dorsal region gibbous and rather swollen in 

 adult males; caudal peduncle rather deep, its depth 1.6 to 2.3, usu- 

 ally less than 2.1, in its length. Color of midsummer males olivace- 

 ous above with steel-blue luster; belly and lower part of sides silvery; 

 a broad dark vertebral streak and a faint plumbeous lateral band, 

 showing as gilt when seen through water; scales above lateral line 

 thickly specked with dusky, with narrow edges of darker; scales along 

 middle of each side partly with the most of the exposed surface un- 

 specked bright silvery with dusky bases, and partly wholly dusky, 

 giving rise to a mottled appearance which is most accentuated in the 

 breeding season; dorsal and caudal fins somewhat dusky, other fins 

 plain; coloration of spring males very brilliant, the upper parts greenish 

 and the sides a rich salmon-pink over sih^ery, with mottlings of 

 dusky emerald; females and young are plain olivaceous above and 

 silvery below. Head 3.8 to 4.2 in length, rather large and heavy, 

 compressed, rounded between the eyes, the muzzle bluntish; width 

 of head 1.9 to 2.1; interorbital space 2.6 to 3.1 in head; eye rather 

 small, 3 . 1 to 4. 7 in head, usually over 4 in adults; nose much longer than 

 eye in adults, 2.8 to 3.3 in head; mouth moderately large and oblique, 

 the tip of the upper lip usually very little above level of lower margin of 

 orbit ; maxillary J longer than eye in fully grown specimens, 2 . 9 to 3 . 2 in 

 head, scarcely reaching front of orbit; lower jaw slightly shorter than 

 upper; isthmus less than pupil. Teeth 2, 4-4, 2, with rather narrow 

 grinding surface; intestine .9 to 1.5 times length of head and body; 



