FISHES OF NEW YORK 507 



Genus HADROPTERLS Agassiz 



Body rather elongate, compressed or not; mouth rather wide, 

 terminal, the lower jaw included, the snout above not protruding 

 beyond the preinaxillaries, which are not protractile; teeth on 

 vomer and usually on palatines also; gill membranes separate 

 or more or less connected; scales small, ctenoid, covering the 

 body; belly with a median series of more or less enlarged 

 spinous plates or ctenoid scales, which in most species fall off 

 .at intervals, leaving a naked strip, in some species persistent 

 xmd but slightly enlarged; sides of head scaly or not; lateral line 

 complete or nearly so; fins large, the soft dorsal smaller than 

 the spinous or the anal; anal spines two (one of them very 

 rarely obsolete); dorsal spines 10 to 15; ventral fins more or 

 less widely separated, specially in species with caducous plates. 

 Vertebrae 39 to 44; H. as pro, 19+23^42; H. evides, 

 18+22^40; H. s c i e r u s, 18+22=40; H. phoxocephalus, 

 19+20=39. Parietal region more or less depressed, not strongly 

 convex in cross-section; supra-occipital crest usually present, 

 "but small. Pyloric caeca two to four. Coloration bright, often 

 brilliant, sides usually with dark blotches. 



Subgenus ALVORDIUS Girard 



249 Hadropterus aspro (Cope & Jordan) 



Black-sided Darter 



Al cord ins aspro COPE & JORDAN, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 51, 1877, substi- 

 tute for Etheostoma blennioides of KIRTLAND and AGASSIZ; JORDAN 

 & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 501, 1883. 



Etheostoma aspro BEAN, Fishes Penna. 123, 1893. 



Hadropterus aspro JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1032, 1896, 

 pi. CLXVI, fig. 438, 1900. 



Body slender, fusiform, elongate, its greatest depth one sixth 

 of length without caudal; least depth of caudal peduncle nearly 

 one third of length of head; head rather long and pointed, one 

 fourth of total length without caudal; the, maxilla extends 

 slightly past front of eye; the mandible is included; the eye large, 

 equal to length of snout and to one fourth the length of head; 

 gill membranes slightly connected; postorbital part of head a 

 little longer than the remainder; the nape scaly or naked; cheeks 



