PAPERS ON ZOOLOGY 147 
GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION OF NOTEMIGONUS 
CRYSOLEUCAS—AN AMERICAN MINNOW 
By Cart L. Husss 
MuspuM or Zootocy, UNiversiry or MICHIGAN 
P| 
The golden shiner is one of the most distinctive and best 
known of all the American minnows. It is usually abundant 
in sluggish streams and weedy ponds from New Brunswick, 
Ontario and North Dakota southward to Florida and Texas. 
Under favorable conditions it reaches a length of about one 
foot, and a weight of about a pound and a half, but in small 
ponds it is more or less dwarfed, breeding at the age of one or 
two years. Thus in the San Diego River of California, which 
is reduced during the dry season to a chain of small discon- 
nected pools, the golden shiner, although it has become abund- 
ant since its introduction, is so greatly dwarfed that the 
largest adults I was able to obtain are scarcely more than 
three inches long to the base of the caudal fin. Most of these 
fishes in the San Diego River become mature at the end of 
their first year, and do not acquire, or acquire only in part, the 
peculiarly deep body which is characteristic of the adult as 
usually found in its native waters!. I have also examined ma- 
ture dwarfed examples from Texas, lowa and Ohio, but these 
specimens, although small, have usually acquired the deep form 
of the larger adults. This dwarfing is one instance of the great 
adaptability of the golden shiner: 
Excluding a doubtful form, Notemigonus crysoleucas is the 
only species in its genus. It has been recognized,” however that 
the species is divisible into two intergrading subspecies: cryso- 
leucas proper, from the greater part of the wide range of the 
species, and boscii, from the South Atlantic States and Flor- 
ida. The variations and inter-relationships of these two sub- 
species, in the different parts of their range, form the main 
theme of the present paper. 
1In discussing Semotilus bullaris, Dr. Kendall has recently stated (Bull. Bur. Fish., 35, 
1918, p. 511): ‘‘Small adult fish resemble young of the larger fish, being silvery and having 
a dark stripe along the side’’", Similar neotenic relations, as is well known, prevail in the 
Salmonidae. 
*First by Jordan and Meek (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 8, 1885, p. 15). 
