514 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



times in the total length. The snout is somewhat decurved. 

 Mouth small and the lower jaw included within the upper. The 

 gill covers are scaly, cheeks naked except in occasional individ- 

 uals, and the nape is usually scaled. The fins are high, but lower 

 and smaller than in other species of B o 1 e o s o m a. D. YIII 

 to X, 10-14; A. I. 7 to 9; scales 5-44 to 55-9. ^ 



Color olivaceous; the back with brown tessellations; sidefe with 

 many W-shaped blotches. The head is speckled above; in males 

 generally black. In the breeding season the whole anterior part 

 of the male is often black. A dark line forward from the eye 

 and sometimes another downward. This is one of the small 

 species, attaining a length of only 2^ inches. It is found on the 

 bottom in clear small brooks, where it lies partly concealed by 

 sand, and changes its colors according to its surroundings. 



The Johnny darter ranges from western Pennsylvania to Mis- 

 souri and Dakota. In the Great lakes region it is abundant, 

 and it is one of the commonest darters in the streams of Ohio. 

 It does not occur in eastern Pennsylvania. In New York it ap- 

 pears to occur in the Great lakes region only. 



254 Boleosoma nigrum olmstedi (Storer) 

 Tessellated^ Darter 



Eihrostoma olmstedi Stoker. Jour. Best. Soc. Nat. Hist. 61, pi. 5, fig. 2, 1841; 



Hist. Fish. Mass. 30, pi. IV, fig. 1, 1867; Bean, Fishes Peuua. 120, 



pi. 33, fig. 67, 1893. 

 Boleosoma olmstedi Goode & Bean, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 19, 1879. 

 Bolrosoma olmstedi Jokdan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, IT. S. Nat. Mus. 492, 1883; 



Bkan, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX. 365, 1897. 

 Etheostoma niff^riom olmstedi Meek, Ann. N. Y. Ac. Sci. IV, 313, 1888. 

 Boleosoma nigrum olmstedi Evermann & Kendall, Kept. TJ. S. F. C. 1894, 



<K>3, 1806; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1057, 1896, 



pi. CLXXI, fig. 451, 1900; Eugene Smith, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. Y. 1897, 



36, 1898. 

 Boleosoma tcssellatum De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 20. pi. 20, fig. 57, 1842, 



The head is contained four and one fourth times in total 

 Icngl h ; <l('i)i h live and one fourth times. The cheeks and opercles 

 are scaly; nape and breast naked. The lateral line is complete^ 

 Willi nl.oiii 50 scales. D. IX, 14; A. I, 9. 



I he color is olivaceous; fins with many narrow bars; the back 

 tessellated; sides with blotches and zigzag markings. Head in 



