LAMPEEYS AND FISHES OF INDIANA. 291 



COTTUS BAiRDi Girard. 

 Millers Thumb; Blob; Muffle-jaio. 



Uranidea richardsoni, Jordan and Gilbert, 1882, 8, 696. 



Body stout anteriorly, tapering backward from the shoulders. Depth 

 in the length four to six. Head very broad and considerably depressed, 

 the lateral outlines convei-ging to the narrow snout. Head in the length 

 three to three and one-half. Mouth large, the maxillary reaching to the 

 back of the eye. Teeth on the palatines. An upwardly directed spine 

 on the preopercle; behind it two other smaller spines directed downward. 

 Eyes close together and directed more or less upward. Pectoral fins 

 broad and long, reaching nearly or quite to the anal. Dorsal rays 

 VI or VII, 16; anal, 12 or 13. General color, olive or grayish. 

 Dorsal region barred with black. Some yellow on the head and on the 

 sides. The spinous dorsal with a band of orange along the upper border. 

 Some of these brighter colors may belong only to the males during cer- 

 tain seasons. Length six inches. 



Canada to Arkansas and Georgia. A common fish in Indiana streams. 

 Carroll County {23, '88, 52) ; Franklin County (J, No. 2, 11); Monroe 

 County (i, '85, 4, 11); White River at Indianapolis (i, '77, 376); Lake 

 Michigan, deep water (1, '77, 64); Marshall County (4, '88, 156); 

 Whitley County (4, '88, 160); Cass County at Logansport; caves of 

 Southern Indiana (W. P. Hay); Eel River System (^, '91, 39); 

 Wabash County (Ulrey ^^, '93, 107); Decatur County (Shannon). 



This species lives in clear streams, preferably those with cool waters. 

 It is frequently found in streams issuing from caves, and even at some 

 distance within the caves, where it can receive no light. It is in such 

 localities that the largest and finest specimens have been obtained. In 

 streams it lurks under stones, where it may conceal itself and be on the 

 lookout for its prey. The eggs are laid, according to Professor S. H. 

 Gage (2, 992), during April. They are of a beautiful salmon color, and 

 are attached in masses to the under side of stones in water from five to 

 twenty inches deep. They are cared for by one of the parents, which 

 will return after being frightened away. The eggs are said to hatch in 

 July. The eggs are cemented firmly to one another. Those on the out- 

 side of the masses hatch first. Another writer, J. Percy Moore (Science, 

 1893, p 319), says that the eggs are laid in masses of from one hundred 

 and twenty to five hundred. They cohere firmly, but there are open 

 spaces between them, allowing the circulation of water and the escape of 

 those young from the interior eggs, which this observer says may hatch 

 first. From his account, the eggs must hatch during the month of May. 

 He states that it is the male fish which guards the eggs. 



