24 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



and it may readily be caught on a small hook- 

 baited with a worm. We often meet an urchin 

 with two or three of them strung through the gills 

 on a forked stick, along with " red-eyes," *' stone- 

 toters," '' horny-heads," and other " boys' fish." 

 At such times we generally buy the hog-fish for a 

 cent, cut it open to look at the air-bladder, which 

 the books say it does not have, and then lay it 

 away with the rest of our treasures in the bottle 

 of alcohol. We find Perciiia usually in rapid and 

 rather deep water, — as deep as we can wade in 

 when seining in hip-boots. We rarely find them 

 small enough for ordinary aquarium purposes ; and 

 the living specimen before us, though wonderfully 

 quick and graceful in its movements, has shown 

 little that is noteworthy, save his courage, his fond- 

 ness for angle-worms, and a possible disposition to 

 bury himself in the sand. There is something in 

 the expression of his face, as he rests on his '* hands 

 and feet" on a stone, that is remarkably lizard- 

 like, suggesting the Blue-tailed Skink {Einneces 

 fascia tics). 



We next come to the fine gentleman of the 

 family, the Black-sided Darter {^H a drop terns aspro 

 Cope and Jordan). This one we may know by its 

 colors. The ground hue is a salmon yellow; the 

 back is regularly and beautifully marbled with black 

 in a peculiar and handsome pattern. On the sides, 

 from the head to the tail, runs a jet-black band, 

 which is widened at intervals into rounded spots 

 which contrast sharply with the silvery color of the 

 belly ; or we may say that on each side is a chain 

 of confluent round black blotches. Sometimes 



