150 



FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



So far as known, this little killi-fish is peculiar to Cape Fear and Yadkin 

 basins. It is common in small brooks, but is scarce in the larger streams. Its 

 usual length is 2.5 inches. 



127. FUNDULUS NOTTII (Agassiz). 

 Star-headed Minnow. 



Zygonectes nottii Agassiz, American Journal of Science and Arts, 1854, 353; Mobile, Ala. 

 Fundulua nottii, Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 657, pi. eviii, fig. 288. 



Diagnosis. — Body comparatively long, compressed posteriorly, the depth contained 4.5 

 in length; head rather more than .25 length; eye very large, .37 length of head; interorbital 

 space .5 length of head; snout obtuse, less than eye; outer row of teeth in each jaw enlarged and 

 recurved; scales in lateral series 36, in transverse series 10; origin of dorsal fin more than .66 

 distance from snout to base of caudal, the rays 7 or 8, the longest ray about equal to distance 

 from snout to posterior margin of pupil; anal similar to dorsal, its origin very slightly behind 

 dorsal, the rays 9 or 10; caudal rounded behind, its length greater than head; pectorals short, 

 acute, their length equal to height of dorsal; ventrals slightly shorter. Color: body from gill- 

 opening to base of caudal marked by 6 narrow, horizontal black stripes, with several other 

 obsolete ones above; 10 to 13 narrow, vertical black stripes of same width; a broad black bar 

 through eye and on cheek; general ground color of body silvery; preorbital region, lower jaw, 

 and upper part of opercle orange red; breast and lower half of opercle reddish yellow. (Named 

 for Dr. Nott, who discovered the fish.) 



Fig. 56. Star-headed Minnow. Fundulus nottii. 



This beautiful little killi-fish has heretofore been recorded from South 

 Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, in fresh-water streams and swamps. 

 The National Museum contains one specimen collected in a pond at Wilmington, 

 N. C, May 9, 1899, by Mr. William P. Seal. The maximum length of the species 

 is about 2 inches. Nothing distinctive can be said of its habits. 



Genus LUCANIA GIrard. Rainwater-fishes. 



Diminutive fishes inhabiting brackish and fresh-water swamps, lagoons, and 

 ditches of United States. The body is rather short and much compressed, and 

 covered with large scales; the small, oblique mouth has a single row of conical 

 teeth in each jaw; the fins are small; and the species are oviparous. Of the 4 

 species known, the range of the following embraces the North Carolina coast. 

 {Lucania, an ancient Italian province; a name having no known application to 

 these fishes.) 



