1016 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



about 23 (12 to 25); species about 120; inhabitants of the fresh waters 

 of cool regions in the Northern Hemisphere, most of them being con- 

 fined to eastern North America or to Europe. The great majority of 

 the species belong to the subfamily Etheostomince (the Darters) all the 

 species of which group are American. They are among the most singular 

 and interesting of our fishes. They differ from the typical Percince in 

 their small size, bright colors, and large fins, and more technically in the 

 rudimentary condition of the pseudobranchiae and the air bladder, both 

 of which organs are usually inappreciable. The preopercle is unarmed, 

 and the number of branchiostegals is 6. The anal papilla is likewise 

 developed, as in the Gobiidce, to which group the darters bear a consid- 

 erable superficial resemblance, which, however, indicates no real affinity. 

 The relations of the darters to the perches have been aptly expressed by 

 Prof. Stephen A. Forbes : " Given a supply of certain kinds of food 

 nearly inaccessible to the ordinary fish, it is to be expected that some 

 fishes would become especially fitted for its utilization. Thus the 

 Etheostomatince as a group are explained in a word by the hypothesis of the 

 progressive adaptation of the young of certain Percidce to a peculiar 

 place of refuge and a peculiarly situated food supply. Perhaps we may 

 without violence call these the mountaineers among fishes. Forced from 

 the populous and fertile valleys of the river beds and lake bottoms, 

 they have taken refuge from their enemies in the rocky highlands, 

 where the free waters play in ceaseless torrents, and there they have 

 wrested from stubborn nature a meager living. Although diminished 

 in size by their constant struggle with the elements, they have developed 

 an activity and hardihood, a vigor of life, and a glow of high color 

 almost unknown among the easier livers of the lowerlands. * * * Not- 

 withstanding their trivial size, they do not seem to be dwarfed so 

 ^much as concentrated fishes." (Am. Nat., 1880, October, pp. 697-702.) 

 The colors of the Etheostomince* are usually very brilliant, species of 



*The following is a popular account of the habits of these fishes: Any one who has ever been 

 a boy and can remember back to the days of tag alders, yellow cowslips, and an angleworm 

 on a pin hook will recall an experience like this: You tried some time to put your finger on a 

 little fish that was lying, apparently asleep, on the bottom of the stream, half hidden under a 

 stone or leaf, his tail bent aroumd the stone as if for support against the force of the current. 

 You will remember that when your finger came near the spot where he was lying, the bent tail 

 was straightened and you saw the fish again resting, head up stream, a few feet away, leaving 

 you puzzled to know whether you had seen the movement or not. You were trying to catch a 

 Johnny Darter. Nothing seems easier, but you did not do it. Having by well-understood 

 strategem succeeded where you failed, allow us to give you that acquaintance which he so deftly 

 declined. In all clear streams from Maine to Mexico the Johnny Darters are found, and the boy 

 who does not know them has missed one of the real pleasures of a boy's life. All of them are 

 very little fishes, some not more than 2 inches long, and the very largest but 6 or 8. 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 appropriate to them all. The realistic dwellers in the Ohio Valley call some of 

 them "Hogfish," and the boys call them "Johnnies." Certainly the boys ought to know, and 

 Johnnies they are, and Darters they are; so Johnnie Darters they shall be. Their first intro- 

 duction to science was in 1819, when Rafinesque gave to tnem their scientific name Etheosloma. 

 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 (Etheostoma fldbellare, Percina caprodes, and Diplesion blermioides) 

 have the mouth alike. But whatever it may mean, Etheostoma is their name, and Rafinesque 

 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 



