Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 449 



brooks was hailed as an omen of victory. Of course these little 

 fishes had really 'always been there.' They were there when 

 America, was discovered and for a long time before, but the people 

 had not seen them. The warblers lived, you remember, in Spald- 

 ing' s woods at Concord, but Spalding did not know that they were 

 there, and they had no knowledge of Spalding. So with the 

 Darters in Spalding's brooks. Still, when the day comes when his- 

 tory shall finally recount all the influences which held Indiana to 

 her place in the Union, shall not among greater things, this least of 

 little fishes receive its little share of praise? The Rainbow Darter 

 is a chubby little fish, as compared with the other Darters. In its 

 movements it is awkward and ungraceful, though swift and sav- 

 age as a pike. One of the mildest of its tricks, which we have 

 noticed, is this: It would gently put its head over a stone and 

 catch a water boatman by one of its swimming legs, release it, 

 catch it again and again release it, until at last the boatman, evi- 

 dently much annoyed, swam away out of its reach. It will follow 

 to the surface of the water a piece of meat suspended by a string. 

 It is more alert in discovering this than a hungry sunfish or rock- 

 bass, and it can be led around like a pet lamb by a thread to which 

 is fastened a section of a worm." Jordan and Copeland. - 



Head 3f in length ; depth 4 ; eye 4 to 4i in head, little shorter 

 than snout; D. IX to XII-11 to 14; A. II, "7 or 8; scales 5-37 to 

 50-10, usually 5-45-10, pores 18 to 35 ; body robust, rather deep and 

 compressed, the back somewhat elevated; head large, compressed; 

 mouth moderate, terminal, oblique, the lower jaw somewhat in- 

 cluded, the maxillary reaching front of orbit; opercular spine 

 moderate; gill-membranes not connected; palatine teeth in one 

 row; cheeks naked or nearly so; opercles scaled; neck and breast 

 usually naked ; fins all large ; dorsal fins usually slightly connected ; 

 anal spines subsequal or the first a little the longer; caudal 

 rounded ; pectoral nearly or quite as long as head. Males olivace- 

 ous, tesselated above, the spots running together into blotches, back 

 without lengthwise black stripes; sides with about 12 indigo-blue 

 bars running obliquely downward and backward, most distinct be- 

 hind, separated by bright orange interspaces; caudal fin deep 

 orange, with deep blue in front and behind; soft dorsal chiefly 

 orange, blue at base and tip; spinous dorsal crimson at base, then 

 orange, with blue edgings; ventrals deep indigo; cheeks blue; 

 throat and breast orange; females much duller, with little blue or 

 red, the vertical fins barred or checked ; young variously marked ; 

 no dark humeral spot. Length 2^. inches. 



