FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 41 

covered with small tubercles. In the breeding condition this is a very 
handsome species, although the females and young lack the bright col- 
ors of the adult male. In Pennsylvania the species is common eyery- 
where, and is best known under the name of red-fin. It reaches a very 
large size in Lake Erie. It has no value except as food and bait for 
more valuable fishes, especially the black bass and pike-perch. The 
flesh is very soft and cannot be kept long after death. 
The shiner runs into small brooks, and is most abundant in eddies 
and other quiet portions of the streams. 
54. Notropis chalybzeus (Cope). 
The Pigmy Minnow. 
{Hybopsis chalybzeus Cope. Cyprinideze of Pennsylvania, 1866, page 383. ] 
‘‘ Head three and eight-tenths (sometimes four) times in length to base of caudal ; 
length of latter equal from opercular margin to nares. Muzzle shorter than diame- 
ter of orbit, slightly acuminate, and exceeded by tip of mandible when viewed from 
above; head flat above, less angulate on temporal regions than many species, the 
superior plane narrower there than between the orbits; supraopercular region ob- 
lique. Teeth slightly hooked, masticatory surface well marked, upper tooth nearly 
opposite angle of the ala. Dorsal fin elevated, with eight rays, a very little behind 
above ventrals ; latter pointed, reaching anal. Analslightly elongate, exceptionally 
with nine rays; pectorals pointed, not reaching ventrals. Superior outline rising 
to dorsal fin, then immediately descending, forming with the nearly parallel ventral 
line, the elongate caudal peduncle. Caudal peduncle deeply forked. 
“The broad, burnished, black latera] band does not descend below the lateral line on 
the middle of the body ; it occupies one and two half rows of scales. Above it on head 
and body the color is fulvous brown, excepting a straw-colored crescent from orbit 
to orbit round the nose ; terminal half of mandible black ; sides of head below, sil- 
very ; of body, straw-colored; no distinct vertebral stripe, or spots on fins. 
‘This is a very small species, nearly the smallest of the Cyprinide ; a specimen be- 
fore me, apparently full grown, measures only one inch, eight and five-tenths lines 
in total.”’ 
The pigmy minnowinhabits the Delaware river, and grows to alength 
of only two inches The Latin name signifies steel-colored. The fish is 
brown with a jet black lateral band, and in the male the lower parts are 
orange. 
Prof. Cope found this species in tributaries of the Delaware, espe- 
cially in dams and ponds. The shining black lateral band makes this a 
conspicuous little fish. 
55. Notropis jejunus Forzes. 
The Hungry Minnow. 
“ This minnow has a stoutish and not very long body, with a short and rather 
heavy caudal peduncle. The greatest depth equals two-ninths of the total length to 
the caudal base; the least depth of the peduncle equals length of postorbital part of 
head. The head is moderate; the snout very short and blunt, its length about two- 
thirds that of the eye. The eye is nearly one-third as long as the head. The mouth 
is moderate in size, oblique, the lower jaw slightly included, and the maxilla reach- 
ing to below the front of the eye. The head is one-fourth of total length to base of 
