432 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



science. Later they received their name of EtJieostoma cos, 

 the Darter of the Sunrise. 



When we found these little fishes, we cared no longer for 

 the Perch, great, gaudy yellow fellows, fit only to be fried, 

 while these were as beautiful as the dawn for which we 

 named them, {EtJicostoina eos) and as delicate as they were 

 beautiful. 



Still, these little "Darters" are the children of the Perch, if 

 the tales of the evolutionist can be trusted, and the Perch is 

 chiefly interesting to me on account of its singular progeny. 



There are some seventy kinds of Darters, all dwarf or 

 diminutive Perches, and swarming on the bottoms of every 

 <:lear stream from Quebec around to Rio Grande and beyond. 

 The largest of them is not more than eight inches long, and 

 the smallest less than two, yet in spite of their littleness they 

 are not so much dwarfed as concentrated fishes, each one as 

 perfect in form as the Perch, and as delicate in color as 

 though it had been separately hand-painted. 



These diminutive creatures are Perch in all their essen- 

 tials, and seem to have arisen in the first place from the 

 adaptation of young Perch to smaller and smaller streams 

 and scantier sources of food supply. 



But the story of the Darter is a long story, much longer 

 than the story of the Perch, and few anglers will listen to it, 

 for though Rafinesque says "They are good to eat, fried," 

 -each one has about as much meat as a beech-nut, and one 

 would as soon think of filling his pan with wood-warblers as 

 his creel with the "Darter-perches." 



THE YELLOW B\SS-;-Moronc interrupt a (Gill). 



Description. — Brassy, tinged with olivaceous above; sides 

 with 7 distinct longitudinal black bands, those below the later- 

 al line interrupted posteriorly, the posterior part alternating 

 with the anterior; body oblong-ovate, with the dorsal outline 

 much arched; head depressed, somewhat pointed, its profile 

 concave; eyes large, their diameter equaling length of snout; 



