262 Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol. VII. 



Color olivaceous green above, sides silvery; scales not distinctly 

 dark-edged. 



Length 6 inches. 



A small silvery minnow ranging from the Dakotas to Delaware, 

 Georgia and Northern Mexico. It prefers clear running water. So 

 far it is not recorded from the Chicago area. 



Genus Piiiiepliales Rafinesque. 



Fatheads. 



Body robust or elongate, little compressed; head short and round- 

 ed, mouth small, subinferior or slightly oblique; premaxillary pro- 

 tractile; no barbel; teeth 4-4 with oblique grinding surface; tips 

 usually not hooked; alimentary canal more than twice length of the 

 body; peritoneum black. 



a. Body short, robust, depth about 3.5 to 4 in length; lateral line 



incomplete. promelas, 262 



aa. Body more elongate, depth about 4.5 in length; lateral line 



complete. notatus, 262 



Pimephales promelas Rafinesque. Fathead; Blackhead Min- 

 now. 



Head 3.6 to 4.0; depth 3.2 to 4.0; D. 9; A. 8; scales 42 to 48. 



Body robust; head broad and short; snout blunt; mouth small, 

 nearly horizontal in males to very oblique in females, the tip of upper 

 [ip on level with lower margin of orbit to upper margin of pupil ; max- 

 illary reaching very little past anterior nostril, its length 3.5 to 4.5 in 

 head; jaws about equal; diameter of eye 4.1 to 4.8 in head; snout 

 3.0 to 3.5 ; teeth 4-4 or 4-5 ; alimentary canal 2 to 3 times the length 

 of body; peritoneum black; first dorsal and anal ray in males con- 

 nected to second by a membrane, not adnate to it as is usual in min- 

 nows; lateral line incomplete; scales rather small, 25 to 30 rows in a 

 series in front of dorsal fin. 



Color dark olivaceous'; dorsal fin with a dusky bar across its middle, 

 more prominent in males; spring or breeding males with head jet 

 black, and body and fins dusky. 



It reaches a length of about 3 inches. 



This fish inhabits ponds and sluggish streams from the Saskatche- 

 wan to New York and south to Northern Mexico. 



Ravine, Glencoe, IlHnois; Willow Springs, IlHnois. 



