1104 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



separated. Anal spines slender, high; pectorals and ventrals reaching 

 about to vent. Olive, speckled with brown ; 10 brownish spots along the 

 sides ; black streaks downward and forward from eye ; dorsal fins mottled. 

 Length \\ inches. Alabama and Mississippi, west to Arkansas, in lowland 

 streams and ponds. (prceUaris, pertaining to battle, it being found on 

 the battlefield of Corinth.) 

 Microperca prceliaris, HAY, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1880, 496, small branch of the Tuscumbia 



River, at Corinth, Mississippi, (Type, No. 27418. Coll. Hay); HAY, Bull. U. S. Fish 



Comm., n, 1882 (1883), 62; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 522, 1883. 

 Etheosloma prceliaris, GILBERT, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., ix, 1889 (1891), 159. 

 Etheostomaprceliare, BOULENGER, Cat., i, 89. 



1497. MICEOPERCA PUNCTULATA, Putnam. 



(LEAST DARTER.) 



Head 3f to 4 ; depth 4-fc to 5. D. VI to VIII-9 or 10 ; A. II, 6 ; scales 34 

 to 37-9. Body rather short and deep, somewhat compressed, the back 

 arched. Caudal peduncle rather long. Head moderate ; snout somewhat 

 decurved ; mouth moderate, terminal, oblique, the maxillary extending 

 to below eye; jaws equal. Cheeks naked; opercles with a few scales; 

 opercular spine very small; neck and chest naked; no trace of lateral 

 line ; the usual series of tubes along the temporal region ; scales quite 

 large, strongly ctenoid. Vertical fins short; anal spines strong, the 

 first usually the largest; ventrals rather long. Coloration olivaceous, 

 the sides closely speckled and with vague bars and zigzag markings ; 

 second dorsal and caudal barred; dark streaks radiating from eye; a 

 dark humeral spot. Length 1 to 1| inches. Smallest of the darters and one 

 of the smallest of fishes ; common in the clear, cold, weedy streams and 

 ponds of the Northwestern States from Indiana, Michigan, and Minnesota, 

 south to Arkansas, where it may intergrade vfithfonticola, as Dr. Meek has 

 specimens with 1 and 2 anal spines ; rare outside of tributaries of the 

 Great Lakes, (punctulatus, speckled.) 



Microperca punctulata, PUTNAM, Bull, i, Mus. Comp. Zool., 4, 1863, from various points in 

 Michigan, "Wisconsin, Illinois, and Alabama [those from Alabama probably M. prx- 

 liaris] (name preoccupied in Etheosloma\)j E.punctulatum, AGASSIZ) ; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synop- 

 sis, 523, 1883. 



Etheostoma microperca, JORDAN & GILBERT, in Jordan's Manual of Vertebrates, Ed. 5, 134, 1888, 

 substitute for punctulata, preoccupied in Etheostoma; specimens from lakes of Laporte 

 County, Indiana; BOULENGER, Cat., i, 87. 



1498. MICROPERCA FONTICOLA (Jordan & Gilbert). 



Head 3| to 4 ; depth 4| to 5. D. VI or VII-8 to 10 ; A. I, 7 ; scales 34. 

 This species or variety is very close to the northern Microperca punctulata. 

 The only tangible differences seem to lie in the coloration and in the con- 

 stant presence in Microperca fonticola of but one anal spine. The head 

 in Microperca fonticola is nearly or quite devoid of scales. In life, light oliva- 

 ceous, the scales broadly margined behind with dusky ; about 8 indistinct 

 dusky cross blotches on back, the dorsal region dusted with fine dusky 

 specks ; a series of dark, stitch-like, short horizontal lines along the 



