350 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



pale in comparison with that of N. heterodon. The following is a 

 description of a typical specimen : 



Head 4.1 in leng-th ; depth 5.1 ; eye 3 in head ; snout 3 ; D. 8 ; 

 A. 8 ; teeth 4-4 ; scales 5-36-4, -14 before dorsal ; lateral line usually 

 quite incomplete. Body rather slender, moderately compressed, 

 heaviest forward; caudal peduncle long and slender; head rather 

 broad ; snout short, bluntly rounded ; mouth small, maxillary not 

 nearly reaching eye, the lower jaw usually included or little pro- 

 jecting; eye large; fins moderate, origin of dorsal slightly behind 

 insertion of ventrals; caudal rather deeply forked, the inner rays 

 scarcely exceeding half length of outer ones. 



Color, pale yellowish or straw-color above, whitish below; back 

 and two rows of scales on each side with a border of dark stippling 

 about each side ; middle of side with a broad plumbeous band over- 

 laid with black arranged in short vertical masses separated by sil- 

 very interspaces which are less heavily punctate with black, this 

 black band extending on to base of caudal fin and through eye 

 around snout. Length 1 to 2.5 inches. 



^ 





Variable-toothed Minnow (Notropis heterodon) 



« 



23. VARIABLE-TOOTHED MINNOW 



NOTROPIS HETERODON (Cope) 



The Variable-toothed Minnow is rather common from New 

 York to Michigan and Kansas. Like its near relative, the Cayuga 

 minnow, it is a rather insignificant little fish, so much like a host 

 of relatives that it is not generally distinguished from the great 

 mass of "minnows" by most people. It can be distinguished from 

 the Cayuga minnow, which it closely resembles, by the larger 

 mouth and bit of black on the chin. The young of this species have 

 a broad black band on the side, and quite closelj^ resemble the young 

 of the chub sucker {Erlmyzon sticetta) . They are not so deep, 

 however, and have a difi"erently shaped mouth. 



