BRIEF NOTES ON FISHES. 355 



undoubted evidence on record of whirlwinds gathering 

 up immense numbers of minute fish and landing them 

 safely miles and miles away. These showers of fishes, 

 frogs, and even salamanders, are not unknown, even if they 

 are uncommon ; and strange would it be if all such wind- 

 transported species should fall upon dry ground, and 

 never into the water. Fertilized eggs, too, can likewise 

 be blown a long distance, even over low ranges of hills 

 which sometimes separate river valleys, and so give rise 

 to a race of fishes that previously were unknown in the 

 locality. Eggs, too, might readily adhere to the mud 

 that often clings to the feet of wading birds, and would 

 thus be gently replaced in a distant river, miles away from 

 that in which they were deposited by the parent fish. 

 The present extensive system of canals, also, has tended 

 to mingle the ichthyic faunas of our various river sys- 

 tems. And when all these possible, probable, and actual 

 conditions are considered, it need excite no wonder if in 

 any one of our rivers or its tributaries we now find occa- 

 sional individuals of unsuspected species. 



In taking up the consideration of our several fishes 

 separately, it will be well to follow some definite method, 

 and therefore I shall treat them in the order in which 

 they are named in the later systems. The one which heads 

 the list, in a little hand-book by my side Jordan's " Man- 

 ual of Vertebrates " is the " hog-fish " ; and it is of this 

 that I will first speak. Why it is so called I can not say, 

 as it surely has neither the habits nor the appearance of 

 any hog that I have ever seen. It belongs to a family of 

 most curious fishes, known collectively as " darters," or 

 etheostomoids, and I prefer to call this one the " sand- 

 perch." These " darters " have been well described as pre- 

 ferring " clear, running water, where they lie on the bot? 



