Jordan and Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 1035 



1424. HADROPTERUS OUACHITA (Jordan & Gilbert). 



Head 4 ; depth 6^ ; eye 3| in head, equal to snout. D. XI or XII-13; 

 A. II, 10; scales 6-52 to 60-10, pores 50 to 58. Body elongate, slender, 

 comparatively little compressed. Head slender, the snout not blunt, the 

 upper profile descending in a long gentle curve. Mouth moderate, 

 narrow , premaxillaries on a level with lower part of orbit, nonprotrac- 

 tile ; Jower jaw^ included ; gape nearly horizontal ; maxillary reaching 

 vertical from front of orbit, its length slightly greater than snout, 3^ in 

 head. Gill membranes scarcely joined across isthmus. Fins of moderate 

 size; longest dorsal spine 2^ in head, the longest soft ray more than half 

 head ; anal spines short and weak, the two nearly equal, their length 

 equaling diameter of orbit : caudal emarginate ; pectorals reaching to 

 opposite tips of ventrals, as long as head. Scales moderate, rough ; 

 lateral line complete, straight; opercles and nape scaled ; cheeks smooth, 

 naked or covered with embedded scales ; breast naked ; middle of belly 

 naked, or with series of enlarged plates; an enlarged spinous scale 

 between bases of ventral fins. Color olivaceous ; back more or less tes- 

 sellated with dark brownish, the margins of the scales dusky ; 5 rather 

 faint dark bars from the back downward and forward to lateral line ; the 

 first under front of spinous dorsal and the second under its last rays, the 

 third under middle of soft dorsal and the fourth immediately behind it, 

 the fifth a mere cross blotch on back of tail ; on middle of back these 

 bars, are narrower than the interspaces, but grow much wider downward; 

 middle of sides with a series of 8 or 9 quadrate dusky blotches, more or 

 less confluent, as in aspro ; below pale, unmarked ; dorsals, caudal, and 

 pectorals more or less evidently barred with light and dark; ventrals 

 and anal unmarked ; no red or blue in life. Length 2 inches. Southern 

 Indiana, western Kentucky, and southwest to Arkansas ; not rare ; known 

 from Patoka River, Indiana (Evermanu) ; lower Green and Obion rivers, 

 Kentucky (Woolman) ; Black River " and Saline River, Arkansas. "Very 

 close to Haclropierus peltatus, a little more slender, the pectorals longer, 

 and 4 distinct cross blotches on the back. The scales in both are larger 

 than in Hudropfcriis aspro, which they otherwise much resemble. (Name 

 from the Ouachita River in Arkansas, now usually spelled Washita, 

 from a tributary of which the types were taken.) 



Elheostoma {lladroptenis) onachitm, Jordan & Gilbert, Proc. V. S. Nat. Mus., 49, 1)>ST, Saline 

 River, Benton, Arkansas, a tributary of the AVashita; (Type No. 3(;449) ; Coll. Jor- 

 dan & Meek); Jordax, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., viii, 18S8 (1890), 164. 



* The following: description is taken from a specimen from Black River, Black Rock, Arkan- 

 sas (Coll. S. E. Meek): 



Head 4; depth C>^; eye 3i; snout 3%; intcrorbital width 2 in eye. D. X-13 ; A. II, 10; scales 

 G_58-8, lateralline complete. Body slender, subterete, rather loosely scaled; breast and nape 

 naked, cheeks and opercles scaly; belly with a naked streak where tlie plates have fallen off. 

 Head narrow, slender; snout pointed; mouth large, maxillary reaching pupil. Upper jaw with 

 frenuni, but scarcely protractile. Gill membranes slightly connected across isthmus. Eye 

 large, a little less than snout; iutei-orbital very narrow. Anal fin large. Color similar to that 

 of H. aspro; sides with about 8 very irregular, confluent dark blotches, most distinct on pos- 

 terior partof bodv; a dark line forward and a very distinct oue downward from the eye, meet- 

 ing its fellow beneath; 4 broad dark blotches across the back (resembling Colloija'^er vranidea 

 in this respect), the first at anterior part of spinous dorsal, the second between the dorsals, the 

 third near the middle of soft dorsal, and the fourth just behind the soft dorsal; fins, except 

 ventrals and anal, barred with dark. 



