20 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



hides her head under her wing, no longer seeing you, 

 he thinks himself secure. 



On account of the shape of his body as well as on 

 account of his rapid movements he has received the 

 surname "darter." Belonging to the group which 

 bear this surname, there are, in the eastern half of the 

 United States, about 47 species or kinds, the largest 

 of which, when, full grown, measures only about six 

 inches in length, while the smallest species never 

 reaches a length of more than an inch and a half. 

 They all have the same habits, and at least 29 kinds 

 of them are found in Indiana; but the one of which I 

 am writing, Etheostoma coeruleum Storer, is much the 



. 3 Rainbow Darter. 



more common. He is from two to two and a half 

 inches in length, and, like the other members of his 

 family, has two fins on his back ; " dorsal " fins they are 

 called by naturalists, the front one of which contains 

 10 short spines. During eight months of the year, 

 the males and females dress alike in a suit of brown- 

 ish olive which is striped on the sides with 10 or. 12 

 narrow, black cross-bars, and more or less blotched 

 on the back with darker spots. But on the first warm 

 days of spring when the breezes blow up from the 

 gulf, awakening the gypsy in our blood, the little 

 male fish feels, too, their influence, and in him there 



