4i6 Roosevelt Wild Life Annals 



poised near the surface or darting before us as we waded. Their quick move- 

 ments and the shallow water in which they dwelt made it hard to catch them in 

 nets. Fishermen who get them when catching minnows may easily distinguish 

 them from other small fishes by their broad grayish backs and heads and the dozen 

 or more dark bars on the sides, and by the conspicuously superior mouth with 

 prominent protractile premaxillaries. They are called "Hard Heads" by Oneida 

 Lake fishermen. 



Breeding Habits and Life History. Little is recorded on the lireeding haliits 

 and the life history of this species. Forbes and Richardson (09, p. 212) found 

 females of the subspecies rnenona moderately distended with eggs, in August, in 

 Illinois, and Eigenmann ('95, p. 252) found eggs, in June, in bottom grass of a 

 lake in Northern Indiana. Wright and Allen ('13, p. 5) give the breeding time 

 for Fundulus diaphaniis as June 24 to August 3, and the breeding place as grassy 

 bottoms. The species is a small one and is usually considered as one of the min- 

 nows. It reaches a length of four or five inches. The largest taken in Oneida 

 Lake were 45^ inches long (Xo. 585). Evermann and Clark ("20. p. 372) 

 described certain activities of pairs of this species, which appeared to be asso- 

 ciated with spawning habits. 



Habitat. The species has a strong preference for very shallow water during 

 the warm season of the year. A scant growth of partly submerged vegetation like 

 Dianthcra. rushes or sedges seems to be congenial to it, but it appears to avoid 

 areas with abundant plant life. It was more often found in Oneida Lake over 

 sandy bottoms than over rocky ones, perhaps because the former was most preva- 

 lent in the very shallow water where killifish like to dwell. The broad sandy shal- 

 lows at the east end of Oneida Lake form an ideal habitat for these killifish and 

 on September 9, 1927, we found them very abundant there, with many of them 

 landlocked on beach pools (Coll. No. 4270 and Figs. 217, 218). 



It apparently does not frequent the mouths of the streams tributary to Oneida 

 Lake in any numbers, at least not during the summer. Only three very small 

 specimens were taken bv us from the tributaries, and these were from Scriba Creek 

 (No. 76), Fish Crcrk ( Xo. 315), and a creek entering Big Bay (No. 116). 



Barrcil Kiltifisli aii]nar to have different habitat preferences in different parts 

 of the country. Ktcd and \\'right ('09, p. 399) found them about Ithaca in the 

 lower courses of streams, flood lanes and marshes, as well as in Cayuga 1 .;ike. 

 Cox ('97, p. 50) found the siil)species nienona in muddy brndks and pcinds where 

 there was aquatic \egetation. Hay ('94, p. 236) considers their iiahitat to he the 

 colder, cleanr waters of streams and springs. Meek and Hildebrand ('10, p. 299) 

 say that the lish iiihaliits small streams and lakes with clear water, .\ccording to 

 Radclifife ('15, p. 2), Fundulus diaphanus occurs in lakes and rixrrs hut prefers the 

 small streams, thriving be.st in small brooks and overflowed jxincU adjacent to 

 water courses. Bcnslev ('i?- P- 3'^) gives soniewh.at weedy and r.athcr ii])cn water 

 as its habitat. 



Pond. Forbes ("i^}i. \>. 71) examined eight lllinciis specimens nf mcnoi\a 

 and found 4 3 of the food to be animal matter and the remainder vegetation. The 

 latter was made up of filamentous algae and seeds of various plants that had fallen 

 into the water, and these were present in too large iiuantilies to h:ivc been t.aken 



