PAPERS OX ZOOLOGY 143 



Fish were not seen working on these i^iles, but in south- 

 ern Michigan I have seen such structures constructed by 

 large males of this species armed with pearl organs and 

 having other breeding characteristics (Hankinson '20). 

 There were many large male Kiver Chubs in breeding dress 

 in Flat Branch at the times these nests were found, and 

 they were easily caught by scooping under the banks with 

 a small net. and there were no other fish in the stream 

 likely to make such stony structures. Once, one of these 

 large male River Chubs came out to a stone pile and moved 

 about over it, but I did not see him carry any stones. Fish 

 eggs were found in one of the piles pulled to pieces. 

 These were sticking to the stones and to each other in 

 small masses. I could not be positive that these were eggs 

 of the River Cliub or some other fish that may have found 

 siTcli piles convenient places for eggs. 



Very little has apparently been published on the life- 

 history of this species. Reighard ('10, p. 1183) undoubt- 

 edly refers to Hyhopsis kenfucl'icnsis when he writes of 

 Hijhopsis carrying away materials from Horned Dace 

 nests. Forbes and Richardson ('09, p. 1G9) say the nest- 

 ing time is late May or early June 2 ('20, p. 9) describe 

 the breeding activities of a male in southern Michigan. 



This species thrives and breeds under a great variety of 

 conditions in the Charleston region. It is abundant in 

 large and small streams, but seems to prefer the latter, 

 and there are large numbers in some artificial ponds in- 

 cluding the one on the Xormal School campus. It has a 

 long breeding season here, my dates for finding nests with 

 attending fish b^iug from June 13 to August 23. 



Two nests found in streams were in Indian Creek and 

 Campus Creek: the first on July 1, 1907, and the other 

 June 13, 1918. Both were shallow depressions in fine 

 gravel ; to which the eggs were attached. The nests were 

 well out in unshaded parts of the streams conspicuously 

 exposed without any vegetation or other concealing fea- 

 tures near them. Each was about ten inches in diameter 

 and in water a little less than a foot deep. This species has 

 been found nesting in two ponds about Charleston, but in 

 these ponds the nests were among clumps of partly sub- 

 merged gi'ass or other vegetation, and all were roughly 



