438 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



touch, reminds one of nothing else so much as a drawn arrow. His 

 long broad pectoral fins are the tense bow-strings, and at a touch 

 he darts through the water like a shot shaft; his motion through 

 the water resembles rather the leap of a frog than the swimming 

 of a fish. 



The black on his back is arranged in about 6 short transverse 

 bars — one a little distance in front of the dorsal, one about the 

 middle of the spinous dorsal, one between the two fins, one about 

 the middle, one at the posterior of the soft dorsal, and one at the 

 base of the caudal. These marks remind one of several other bot- 

 tom-lying fishes — the black sucker, the blob, and one of the mad 

 toms (Schilbeodes exilis) . Looked at sideways — a view one never 

 gets of him out in nature — he shows a very short blunt nose, even 

 shorter and blunter than that of the green-sided darter. The ends 

 of the dorsal cross-bars are visible as a series of dark blotches, 

 and along the middle of the side is a row of blotches, irregular in 

 size and shape, but in general more like W's than anything else. 



The stomachs of several examples showed that this species 

 feeds on small animals; beach fleas were found in an example 2 

 inches long, and another of the same size contained, in addition to 

 the beach flea, a Chironomous larva, and a parasitic distomid. 



In spite of their spiny armament, darters are frequently found 

 in the stomachs of other fishes, and the Johnny Darter is quite ef- 

 fective for perch bait. 



Head 3.75 to 4.5 in length ; depth 5 to 7 ; eye 5 to 5.5 in head ; 

 snout 3 to 3.5; maxillary 3.5; D. IX-11 or 12 (VH to X-10 to 14) ; 

 A. I, 7 to 9 ; scales 5-44 to 55-9, rarely 35 to 40 ; tubes of the lateral 

 line sometimes obsolete on the last 4 or 5 scales ; body fusiform, 

 slender, not compressed, caudal peduncle slender, its least width 

 1.75 in the least depth ; head rather short ; snout a little longer than 

 eye, decurved; mouth small, horizontal, maxillary reaching eye; 

 premaxillaries protractile; lower jaw included; interorbital space 

 rather wide ; gill-membranes rather narrowly connected, free from 

 the isthmus ; fins moderate ; origin of spinous dorsal nearer origin 

 of soft dorsal than tip of snout; origin of soft dorsal somewhat 

 anterior to that of anal ; spinous and soft dorsals separated by a 

 space -J- to f diameter of eye ; longest dorsal spines about 2 in head ; 

 longest dorsal rays 2 in head ; longest anal ray 2.5 in head ; pec- 

 toral large, pointed, nearly as long as head, reaching past tips of 

 ventrals; ventrals short, 1.3 in head, widely separated, the space 

 between them as wide as base of either fin ; caudal rounded. Scales 

 rather large, strongly ctenoid; lateral line never complete, usually 

 15 to 30 pores with 2 or 3 interruptions then a few scattered ones. 



