66 Bulletin No. 159 



Though small, they are quick, strong swimmers, the pectoral 

 fins especially being relatively large. When uncovered they 

 dart at once under another rock, and are thus not very easy 

 to observe and capture. Indeed they are not often seen 

 excepting by collectors of fishes, and are all but unknown to 

 anglers. When by accident brought to the notice of the 

 latter they are generally regarded as the young of wall-eyed 

 pike and other large game fishes which they somewhat 

 resemble. 



These diminutive fishes can pursue the insects living in 

 rapids wherever they may go, and being exclusively carni- 

 vorous must have a decided regulative effect on the numbers 

 of insects inhabiting the rapids. The species collected at 

 Gary in Straight Creek in October is Etheostoma obeyense, 

 originally described from small tributaries of the Cumber- 

 land River in Whitley and Clinton counties. The stomach 

 of an example captured with a small dip net in a rapid in 

 which Simulium occurred contained an almost perfect May- 

 fly larva. 



Etheostoma obeyense.— hength 1.36 inches; depth 5.2 

 in length. Eye a trifle longer than snout. Cheeks, oper- 

 cles, and nape, naked. Lateral line with 46 scales, 25 

 to 26 of the anterior ones with tubes. Spinous dorsal mod- 

 erately low, with 8 spines; soft dorsal with 11 rays. Ventral, 

 with two spines and seven rays. Color pale olivaceous with 

 a series of dusky blotches along the back and another of 

 small dots along the lateral line. Head with a dusky bar 

 from the eye to the tip of the snout, and a faint vertical bar 

 ventral to the eye. Head dusky above, pallid below, min- 

 utely specked with black. Spinous dorsal dusky edged. 

 Soft dorsal barred with dusky. Caudal with six bars of 

 dusky, the anterior partly on the extremity of the caudal 

 peduncle. 



I do not know any other fish of our waters very likely to 

 be mistaken for this, though no less than eighteen members 

 of its family occur in the Cumberland River and its small 

 tributaries in this part of Kentucky. The above species is 

 highly characteristic of the locality. 



