no.1655. NOTES <>\ VERTEBRATES FROM INDIANA II MIX. 549 



the one species has it- home and bul four others have been observed 



as rare accidental visitors. 



Two causes combine to keep the other species from becoming estab- 

 lished in the eaves. First and most important is the dislike of most 

 fishes for entering the dark and their Inability to maintain themselves 

 away from daylight. The one species winch has become established 

 in the cave is sightless, but the eyes were certainly degenerate before 

 it adopted a subterranean habitat. This fad accounts for its pres 

 ence in the cave rather than the reverse proposition thai the eyes have 

 degenerated because it lived in the dark. 



A second factor is the small amount of food to he obtained in the 

 cave. An amphipod and an isopod are permanent resident- there. 

 The larvae of aquatic insects, together with other animal and vegetable 

 matter, are washed into the cave with each heavy fain. Although lim- 

 ited, the supply of food would doubtless he sufficient for several addi- 

 tional specie- were they able to secure it. 



LIST of SPECIES. 



1. Ameiurus n< bvlosus ( Le Sueur ) . horned pout ; bullhead. Taken 

 in the small creek below the cave. 



2. Ameiurus melas (Rafinesque), black catfish. One was taken 

 within the upper cave at a point where the Light is very dim. There 

 are specimens in the University Museum which were taken near the 

 same spot. I am unable to say whether the fishes ascended the stream 

 through the two lower caves or were washed down from some of the 

 pond- which have been -tucked with them, and which overflow 

 through sink holes into the caves. 



:'). Oatostomus commersonii (Lacepede), white sucker: common 

 sucker. 



I. Minytrema melanops (Rafinesque), winter sucker; spotted 

 sucker. 



5. Placopharynx duquesnii (Le Sueur). 



6. Hybognaphus nuchalis Agassiz. 



7. Pimephales notaims (Rafinesque), blunt-nosed minnow. 



8. Gliola vigilax (Baird and Girard). 



'.1. Notropis whipplei (Girard), silver-fin. 



10. Bhmichtkys <if/<</n/.s,,s < Mitchell), black-nosed dace. 



II. Amblyopsis spelceus I >e Kay, blind fish. Never -ecu outside 

 the caves. One was seen in the cave with a minnow almost as large 

 as itself half way down its throat. 



1-2. Apomotis cyaneUus (Rafinesque) , blue sunfish. Has been taken 

 80 feet within the entrance of the upper caw. which it could haw 

 reached only by passing through one of the other caves. The speci- 

 mens taken in the cave were starved and in very poor condition, and 



