PAPERS OX ZOOLOGY 141 



feet in length. A large male eight inches long ordinarily 

 makes ridges about two feet long and has a pit about eight 

 inches in diameter and about two inches deep. The short 

 ridges may be due to the swift currents produced by spring 

 rains in the creeks where I have found the Horned Dace 

 nests. Such currents often obliterate completely nests of 

 this species and those of the Stone-roller, sometimes re- 

 moving all the gravel there and leaving a bed of smooth 

 clay or hardpan in its place. 



As a rule, only one fish works on a piece of gravel shoal, 

 but sometimes two are on one shoal but with nests not vei-y 

 near together. The nesting fish are ordinarily very wary 

 and can be approached by taking the special precautions 

 described in detail by Reighard ( '10, p. 1113). The spawn- 

 ing act has been seen once by me. It was performed very 

 quickly over the pit of the nest, and the positions of the 

 two fish were apparently the same as those described by 

 Reighard (*10, 1130). Eggs may be obtained and exam- 

 ined from the gravel of the pit or ridge by the same method 

 suggested for the Stone-roller. Embody ('11, p. 170) 

 advises lifting some of the gravel up in the water over the 

 nest and allowing the eggs to be carried with the current 

 into a fine mesh net. 



Ericymha huccata Cope, Silver-mouthed Minnow. 



Data on the breeding of this abundant species in this 

 region has been obtained during one spring season, 1909, 

 and in Campus Creek, a small stream about two miles long 

 and draining perhaps two square miles of the region south 

 and west of the Normal School at Charleston (Hankinson 

 ■10). They were abundant then in the stream but have 

 been found scarce there at other times, so it is probable 

 that they came into the creek for breeding purposes from 

 the larger Kickapoo Creek, in which they are apparently 

 numerous at all times. They remained in the lower half 

 of Campus Creek and showed no tendency to go to the head- 

 waters. Here they found a clean sandy and gravelly bot- 

 tom for which they have preference (Forbes and Richard- 

 son '09, p. 158). A number of ripe fish of both sexes were 

 caught here, April 24, 25, 26, and June 7. What appeared 

 to be the spawning behavior was noted on April 25, 1909. 

 A number of these Silver-mouthed Minnows were on a 

 piece of sandy shallows where the stream was six or seven 



