JOHNNY DARTERS. 21 



the very largest but six or eight. But small though 

 they are, they are the most interesting in habits, 

 the most graceful in form, and many of them the 

 most brilliant in color of all fresh-water fishes. 

 The books call them " Darters ; " for one of the first 

 species known was named Boleosoma, and that in 

 Greek means " dart body," a name most appro- 

 priate to them all. The realistic dwellers in the 

 Ohio Valley call some of them " Hog-fish," and 

 the boys call them " Johnnies." Certainly the 

 boys ought to know, and Johnnies they are, and 

 Darters they are; so Johnny Darters they shall 

 be. Their first introduction to science was in 1819, 

 when Rafinesque gave to them their scientific 

 name of Etheostoma. This name seems to mean 

 " strainer-mouth ; " but the " eccentric naturalist," 

 whose peculiar use of the Greek language was not 

 the least of his eccentricities, says that it means 

 " various-mouth," because no two of those he 

 knew 1 have the mouth alike. But whatever it 

 may mean, Etheostoma is their name, and Rafi- 

 nesque their godfather; and we may call them 

 Johnnies for short. 



Rafinesque said of the Johnnies that he knew 

 "they are good to eat fried." I suppose that 

 he had tried them; but we have not. We should 

 as soon think of filling our pan with wood-warblers 

 as to make a meal of them. The good man goes 

 a-fishing not for " pot-luck," but to let escape "the 

 Indian within him." 



The Johnny Darter deserves our especial atten- 



1 These were Etheostoma Jlabellare, Fercina caprodes, and Diple- 

 sion blennioidts* 



