ABRAMIS BREAMS 



127 



Ohio, Osburn found it chiefly in ponds, quiet pools, and weedy 

 bayous. According to Dr. Bean, it is one of the commonest fishes 

 of Pennsylvania, frequenting sluggish waters and abounding in 

 bayous and weedy ponds where it grows to a length of a foot and a 

 weight of a pound and a half. According to Dr. Jordan, "it is 

 especially characteristic of sluggish waters in either lake, pond, or 

 bayou. In Ohio it is extremely abundant, in the weedy bayous 

 most of all. The yellow pond-lily is its favorite shelter." 



It has been taken by us in 303 collections, more frequently 

 than any other fish except the blunt-nosed minnow {Pimephalcs 

 notatus), which has appeared in 3 7 7. The most notable pecu- 

 liarities of its local and ecological distribution in Illinois are 

 its frequencv in lowland lakes and ponds (coefficient, 1.36), 

 and over a muddy bottom (3.79). Our map of the distribu- 

 tion of the Illinois collections of this species shows that, although 

 it is widely distributed throughout the state, occurring in many 

 localities in each of our stream systems, there is a notable 

 difference in the size of the streams which it chiefly inhabits in the 

 southern and eastern parts of the state, where it is essentially a 

 creek species, and in the remainder of the state, where it has been 

 taken chiefly along our larger rivers. It is also very much more 

 abundant in the Wabash basin, the Big Muddy, and the tribu- 

 taries of the Ohio than in any other part of Illinois, appearing there 

 three and four times as frequently to the hundred collections as in 

 the Illinois valley or the streams of northwestern Illinois. 



It has a more efficient equipment of alimentary structures than 

 anyi >ther of our common minnows, and a correspondingly wide range 

 i >f food resources. Its intestine is rather long — one and a third times 

 the length of the head and body together; the gill-rakers are long, 

 fine, and numerous ; and the pharyngeal teeth are provided both with 

 terminal hooks and grinding surfaces. We find its food varying, 

 consequently, according to situation, from a mere mass of mud, to 

 mollusks, insects. Entomostraca, and vegetable substances. Where 

 mollusks are abundant, it sometimes feeds on nothing else; and in 

 ponds containing many minute Crusta cca, these may be its sole food. 

 One specimen taken from Xippersink Lake, in the northern part of 

 the state, had filled itself \\\{h wild rice. Insects, mainly terrestrial, 

 were also eaten by several, and some of the specimens studied, had 

 devoured quantities of algas 



The golden shiner is said to be an excellent pan- fish, if of suffi 

 cienl size. It is active all wint< r, and can be taken through the i< 

 It lives well in the aquarium, and makes a good bait for black bass. 



