JOHNNY DARTERS. 31 



surely evades your clutch. You can catch a 

 weasel asleep when you can put your finger on 

 one of these. It is a slim, narrow, black, pirate- 

 rigged little fish, with a long pointed head, and a 

 projecting, prow-like lower jaw. It carries no flag, 

 but is colored like the rocks, among which it lives. 

 It is dark brown in hue, with a dusky spot on each 

 scale, so that the whole body seems covered with 

 lengthwise stripes ; and these are further relieved 

 by cross-bands of the same color. Its fins, espe- 

 cially the broad fan-shaped caudal, are likewise 

 much checkered with spots of black. The spines 

 of the dorsal fin are very low ; and each of these in 

 the male ends in a little fleshy pad of a rusty-red 

 color, the fish's only attempt at ornamentation. 



The fan-tail darter chooses the coldest and swift- 

 est waters ; and in these, as befits his form, he leads 

 an active, predatory life. He is the terror of water- 

 snails and caddis-worms, and the larvae of mosqui- 

 toes. In the aquarium this darter is one of the most 

 interesting of fishes; for though plainly colored 

 it is very handsome, and in its movements is the 

 most graceful of all the darters. Its mouth opens 

 wider than that of any of the others, and it is fuller 

 of bristling teeth. Its large, yellow-rimmed black 

 eyes are ever on the watch. The least of a " fish " 

 and the most of a darter, the fan-tail is worthily 

 left as the type of the genus Etheostoma, in which 

 it was first placed by its discoverer, Rafinesque. 



We often brought home with us a "Johnny," 

 " Speck," or " Crawl-a-bottom," of a different type 

 from any of those whose habits we already knew. 

 It had a very sharp nose which projected over its 



