1076 Bulletin ^7, Utiited States National Museum. 



Elheostmva -Mnnle urcans'nnnm, Jordan k Gilbert, Proo. U. S. Nat. Mus., I881;, 5, Spring River, 

 Carthage, Missouri; James River, Marshfield, Missouri; Poteau River, Hackett 

 City, Arkansas; Washita River, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and Saline River, Ben- 

 ton, Arkansas. (Type, Nos. 3G249, 36275, 36399, 36410, 364-17. Coll. Jordan & Meek.) 



Subgenus NOTHONOTUS, Agassiz. 



1462. ETHEOSTOMA CAMURUM* (Cope). 



(Blue-bbeasted Darter.) 



Head 4; depth 4^. D. XI-13; A. II, 8; scales 7-50 to 58-8, 48 to 53 

 pores. Body stout; head short; muzzle abruptly decurved, the mouth 

 somewhat inferior, lower jaw included ; caudal broad, truncate. Males 

 very dark olive or blackish, with an obscure band of a paler shade; belly 

 paler; breast and throat deep rich blue; sides profusely sprinkled with 

 crimson dots ; these spots are sometimes arranged in short longitudinal 

 series of threes and fours ; series of olivaceous lines along the rows of 

 scales ; first dorsal with a black spot at base in front and a crimson one 

 on the margin between the first and second rays ; second dorsal, caudal, 

 and anal crimson, bordered with yellow, which again is bordered with 

 black or dark blue on the edge of the fin ; the crimson is deepest next 

 the yellow ; pectoral and ventral fins with a broad red margin. Females 

 less distinctly marked; greenish; many scales brown; fins yellowish 

 olive ; caudal red ; all vertical fins edged with blackish. Specimens from 

 the Tippecanoe Eiver, Indiana (Coll. Evermann), have the following life 

 colors: Sides light brown, with 12 to 15 very narrow greenish lines run- 

 ning from pectorals to caudal ; three rather plain vertical bars of the 

 same color, but much broader just back of the pectorals, faint traces of 5 

 or 6 others between them and the tail; about 50 to 60 small deep orange 

 spots scattered irregularly over the sides ; axils dusky ; belly pale bluish 

 green ; throat and chin deeper blue ; top of head and cheeks light brown, 

 more or less mottled with darker; spinous dorsal uniform light brown, 

 or greenish ; soft dorsal deeper brown, with a series of reddish spots near 

 the top ; above these a pale line, above which is a still darker line, form- 

 ing the border of the fin, and same as soft dorsal ; pectorals pale brown, 

 darkest on outer half; ventrals same, but outer half a little darker than 

 pectorals ; caudal light brown with some dark near the middle, a reddish 

 brown bar near the tip; outside this a pale bar, the extreme tip of the 

 fin being a pale green. Scales 53; snout bluntly decurved. Length 2| 

 inches. Indiana and Ohio to Tennessee in clear, swift waters; not com- 

 mon ; one of the most elegant members of this most beautiful genus, 

 perhaps the prettiest of fresh water fishes, icamurii.s, blunt-headed.) 



Pipt-iliehthys caninnts. Cope, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. Phila., 1870, 265, head waters of the Cum- 

 berland River in Tennessee. (Coll. Cope.) 

 Nmiostoma cayniiriis, Jorpan it Gilbert, Synopsis, 506, 18S3. 

 Elheoetoma cmuwuiii, Jordan, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., viii, 1888 (1890), 160; Boulenger, Cat., i, 69. 



* A more beautiful fish than the Rainbow Darter, one of the very handsomest of them all, is 

 the Blue-breasted Darter, Etheoxtoma caninmm. It is a deep olive-green little fisli, sprinkled 

 over with dots of rarmine like a brook trout. Its breast is of a deep ultramarine blue, and its 

 fins gayly variegated w ith blue, yellow, and crimson. But we hardly learned to know it as an 

 a(iuariuni acquaintance, for we found it but twice, both times in the clearest of water, and our 

 specimens never survived confinement more than two or three hours. We can only say of their 

 habits that they died where other darters lived, and that before they died all other tishcs seemed 

 cheap and common beside them. — Jordan & Copeland. 



