212 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



This little top-minnow, rare in Illinois and taken by us but 

 twenty times, all in the northern half of the state, is, in fact, a north- 

 ern species in the United States, found outside Illinois in the lakes 

 and ponds of Ohio, Indiana, ]\Iichigan, and Wisconsin, and in the 

 Missouri basin as far south as the Kansas River. The typical form 

 (Fundulus diaphanus) occurs from the headwaters to the brackish 

 mouths of coastwise streams from Quebec, New Brunswick, and 

 Maine to Cape Hatteras, and in the lakes of New York State. 

 Our Illinois examples of menona have been mainly taken from up- 

 land lakes of the headwaters of the Fox and Des Plaines, from the 

 headwaters of the Rock River, from the lakes of the Calumet series, 

 and from pools near Bloomington, in McLean county. In Wolf and 

 Calumet lakes it was most frequent near shore among weeds and 

 rushes, in clear water and over a bottom, of sand. 



The food of eight specimens from the northeastern lakes com- 

 prised insects, both aquatic and terrestrial, amphipod Crustacea 

 {Allorchestes) , various Entomostraca, especially those living upon the 

 bottom, a few thin-shelled univalves (Planorbis) , and the seeds of 

 plants which had fallen into the water, these last taken in quan- 

 tity too large to have been accidental. 



Females moderately distended with large eggs were taken by us 

 in Sand Lake Aug. 3, 1887, a fact which indicates a late spawning 

 period. Dr. Eigenmann, however, found the eggs of this species in 

 grassy bottoms of Indiana lakes June 24. 



FUNDULUS DISPAR (Agassiz) 



Agassiz, 1854, Amer. J. Sci. and Arts, 353 (Zygonectes). 



J. &G., 341 (Zygonectes) ;M. v., 86 (Zygonectes) ; J. & E., I, 658; X., 42 (Zygonectes); 

 J., 52 (Zygonectes); F., 72 (Zygonectes); F. F., I. 6, 72 (Zygonectes); L., 21. 



Length, 2h inches; body rather short and deep, compressed, caudal 

 peduncle short ; depth 3.5 to 4.3; greatest width about | of greatest 

 depth; depth caudal peduncle 1 . 5 to 1 . 9 in its length. Color (females) 

 light olive, with 9 or 10 wavy longitudinal lines of brown traversing 

 each side along the lower edges of the rows of scales; no distinct* 

 transverse bars; dorsal and anal with a few faint dusky spots; caudal 

 plain; adult males and females with a triangular bluish blotch below 

 eye, and a smaller blotch above and in front of it, the two blotches 

 more or less confluent with similar color in the eye itself. Males with 

 irregular longitudinal rows of reddish brown dots on sides, not con- 



*Females H inches long taken in Wolf Lake, South Chicago, in August, 1903, 

 had faint vertical bars. These disappeared at times, and on one occasion when 

 apparent in direct side view disappeared at other angles. These females were in all 

 other respects typical. 



