63] STUDY OF SOUTHERN WISCONSIN FISHES— CAHN 63 



Jordan and Evermann (1896: 805): "Head 4-|; depth 6; eye 2>\; D. IV-1, 

 11; A. 1,23; scales 75. Body elongate, very slender, compressed. Head 

 long, flattened above, narrow below. Snout slender, conic. Premaxillaries 

 broad posteriorly, very protractile, produced forward, the snout longer 

 than the eye. Edge of upper jaw strongly concaved. Teeth very slender, 

 mostly in one series, forming a narrow band in front. Scales small, thin, 

 with edges entire (cycloid). Spinus dorsal very small; soft dorsal short. 

 Anal fin long, caudal forked; pectorals moderate. First dorsal inserted 

 somewhat behind the vent. Pale olive green, translucent; lateral silvery 

 band very distinct, scarcely broader than pupil, bounded above by a dark 

 line; back dotted with black. In the black waters of the lowland swamps 

 the silvery is underlaid by black. Length Z\ inches. Ponds and sluggish 

 streams; Lake Ontario and southern Michigan to Iowa, Florida and Texas; 

 locally abundant; a very graceful little fish, widely distributed, confined 

 to fresh waters." The present writer can offer no improvement on the 

 above description beyond pointing out the fact that the tendency of the 

 black pigment to underlie the silvery band is evident in a vast majority of 

 the specimens from southern Wisconsin where the water is anything but 

 like the "black waters of the lowland swamps." 



In spite of the familiarity of all ichthyologists with this attractive 

 species, and despite the fact that it is listed as common or abundant in 

 practically every list of fishes of the Mississippi valley, no comprehensive 

 study of the species has been published, nor are observations of the habits 

 or general behavior of the species to be found in other than the most general 

 terms. "Beyond observations that Labidesthes remains near and feeds 

 at the surface and that it frequently skips through the air, nothing has been 

 published concerning the habits of this fish" (Hubbs 1921). Notes on its 

 food have been presented by Forbes (1878, 1883, 1888), Forbes and 

 Richardson (1908), Baker (1916, 1918), Evermann and Clark (1920), 

 Pearse (1915) and Hubbs (1921). This represents the status of our knowl- 

 edge at the time of publication by Hubbs (1921) of his ecological study 

 of the life-history of the species in 1921. This report contributed con- 

 siderable to our knowledge of the species and pointed out several problems 

 which enter into the life-cycle of the fish from a behavioristic standpoint. 

 Explanations of these problems are offered, but they are essentially 

 theoretical in nature, and the present writer, as a result of five years of 

 observations and as a result of experimental procedure, finds it necessary 

 to disagree with Hubbs in some of his conclusions. Several important 

 points in the behavior of the species have been entirely overlooked by the 

 previous author, and several errors appear as a result no doubt of having 

 failed to find these facts. Thus he says: "In striking contrast to their 

 intense activity by day, the adults at night were observed to lie quiescent 

 as though asleep." This statement points to entirely erroneous conclusions, 



