[cox] FRESH WATER FISHES AND BATRACHIA 145 



province. Previously its only records had been the Saginaw and 

 Grand rivers, Michigan, and the Baraboo river, Wisconsin. As great 

 activity has characterized ichthyological research in recent years, the 

 lack of any further stations for this species being recorded might be 

 accepted as proof of its rarity, and lend additional interest to the isolated 

 and discontinuous character of its known distribution. But the occur- 

 rence here of this western (?) form, however interesting, was no 

 surprise, as it was only an addition to certain facts which suggest 

 a recent and more intimate relation between the fauna and flora of 

 these sections ; for it has long been known that many plants of 

 western range are indigenous to the upper St. John, and that some 

 small mammals, notably Sorex richafdsoni, Bachman, not elsewhere 

 reported east of Manitoba, are quite common in the valley of that river. 

 (See Bull. No. XIV., Nat. Hist. Soc. of New Brunswick, p. 53-4.) It was, 

 however, a genuine surprise to meet with this Plioxinus on the Gaspé 

 coast, where it occurs in a small lake near New Carlisle, associated with 

 another equally interesting and rare form of western and southern range, 

 Chrosomiis eryfhrogaster, Ag. 



In New Brunswick the waters frequented by Phoxinus are generally 

 free from predaceous fishes except perhaps Anquilla rostrata, LeS., and 

 Gasterosteus pungitius, L., and its Quebec station is quite similar in this 

 respect, so that the brightly coloured and otherwise attractive minnow 

 may, in part, owe its preservation here and there to this cause. 



It varies considerably, the stock of one lake being easily distin- 

 guished from that of another, not alone by size and coloration, but by 

 certain structural differences. The Dark Lake fish are the smallest 

 known to the writer, never exceeding two and three-quarters inches in 

 length, whereas in McDonald Lake they are twice as long, the largest 

 on record. The former, too, have the anal fin mostly 9-rayed ; the 

 dorsal insertion more posterior by two-thirds the length of the caudal ; 

 branchial leaflets oblong and stouter ; gill-rakers shorter, less acute and 

 with broader bases ; snout shorter and blunter ; lateral line relatively 

 longer, and the band on the side intensely black in life, and forming a 

 conspicuous patch on the operculum. 



The Gaspé PJwximts is very close to the larger New Brunswick 

 forms, being about four inches in length ; but the dorsal and anal are 

 more pointed, the pectorals longer, and muzzle more acute. The den- 

 tition, however, is very irregular. In New Brunswick the females, 

 strange to say, are more rosy in the breeding season than the males. 



Chrosomus erythrog aster, Ag. Ked-bellied Dace. 



This species was reported from New Brunswick by the writer in tlie 

 aiticle referred to under Plioxinus, as occurring in Clear Lake, Lepreau, 



