BRIEF NOTES ON FISHES. 419 



most approved trout-like manner. Other cyprinoids do 

 the same, I know, but none have the pike-like quickness, 

 and I may add ferocity, of this species. This I thoroughly 

 tested by keeping several of them in my aquarium. 

 They quickly caused to disappear a score of the small min- 

 nows in the tank ; although I never could see them in 

 the act of molesting these smaller fishes. 



They are not abundant, and I am not sure but that I 

 should have overlooked them had I not heard them 

 spoken of by juvenile anglers, who asked me if the fish 

 in question were " real shiners or some sort of a pike." 

 These boys had become familiar with a species of fish in 

 this neighborhood that had, up to that time, wholly es- 

 caped me. I have been less positive as to the extent and 

 accuracy of my knowledge of our fishes ever since. 



The true dace, of which I find two species, are very 

 different in every respect from the preceding. One of 

 them, the black-nosed dace, is an exceedingly common 

 species, and is found in every brook arid ditch that has 

 anything of a current. Like the red-fins and silver-fins, 

 these dace must always be struggling up stream, and 

 darting, when frightened, down stream ; but in quiet 

 water they are at once lost, and, after moving restlessly 

 about in a vain endeavor to find a current, they give up 

 the effort and the ghost together. 



Mr. C. F. Holder, from whom I have already quoted 

 in regard to other fishes, remarks of the black-nosed 

 dace : " In the warm weeks of June come the sterner 

 duties, the nesting-time ; male and female join in the 

 preparation, and the locality is selected, perhaps in some 

 running brook, in shallow water. Roots, snags, and 

 leaves are carried away, both sometimes tugging at a sin- 

 gle piece, taking it down stream, and working faithfully, 



