FISH OF ONTARIO. 37 



median over the end of that fin. Scales, 7-46-5. A small barbel on max- 

 illary. 



D. II., 7; A. II., 7; v., 8; P., 18. 



Colour, upper parts steel blue; sides and belly silvery, fins unmarked. 

 In spring the males have the belly and lovi^er fins flushed with deep rose. 

 This is the largest representative of the Minnow tribe in our waters, under 

 favorable circumstances attaining a length of eighteen inches. It frequents 

 streams and mill-ponds, spawns in June, and is most abundant in the 

 eastern part of the Province. This fish is eatable, but its flesh is not 

 greatly esteemed. 



Subgenus SEMOTILUS. 



(32) Creek Chub. Horned Dace. 



(Semotilus atromaculatus.) 



Body slender and moderately elongate ; head thicker than the body 

 and rather short ; eye rather small and placed high. Mouth moderate, 

 very slightly oblique, the jaws subequal, or the lower sligjitly included. 

 Maxillary barbel minute (not evident in the young). The lateral line is 

 abruptly bent downward over the first half of the pectoral, straight and 

 nearly median during the rest of its course ; caudal moderate and not very 

 deeply forked. 



Scales, 9-58-6. D. II., 7; A. III., 8; V., 8; P., 15. 



Colour, bluish brown above; sides with a distinct dusky band, which 

 becomes obsolete in the adult. Young specimens have the end of this 

 band more pronounced, forming a black spot at the base of the caudal. A 

 small black blotch always present on the front of the base of the dorsal. 

 Belly whitish. Males in the spring have the belly rose-tinted and coarse 

 tubercles on the snout. This species sometimes attains a length of twelve 

 inches ; it is very abundant and generally distributed in all the streams of 

 Ontario. As a food fish it does not take high rank, though it affords a 

 great deal of sport for rural school boys. It spawns in early summer on 

 the stony shallows in the streams it frequents. 



Genus LEUCISCUS. (Dace.) 



Body oblong, compressed or robust, covered with moderate or small 

 scales; lateral line decurved, complete, or variously imperfect; mouth 

 usually large and terminal, the lips normal, without barbel; teeth mostly 

 2, 5-4, 2, but somewhat variable, hooked, with rather narrow grinding* 

 surface or none ; anal basis short or more or less elongate ; dorsal fin 

 posterior, usually behind ventrals ; intestinal canal short. Size generally 

 large, some species very small. A very large group, one of the largest 

 current genera in ichthyology, represented by numerous species in North 

 America. 



