FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 51 

however, it is not greatly esteemed. It is extremely common in the 
Delaware river and its tributaries, and moderately abundant in the Sus- 
quehanna. 
The fall fish is found from Quebec to Virginia. The fish delights 
in rapid, rocky portions of large streams, and in the deep channels. 
Upon being hooked it fights with desperation for a short time, but its 
resistance is soon overcome. Thoreau describes it as a soft fish with a 
taste like brown paper salted, yet the boy fishermen of Pennsylvania 
will still continue to covet and admire this handsome and ubiquitous 
representative of the minnows. 
69. Semotilus atromaculatus Mircuitt. 
The Horned Dace or Chub. 
The chub has a slender and moderately elongate body, its greatest height immedi- 
ately in front of the ventrals about equal to the length of the head without the snout 
and contained from four to nearly five times in the total length without the caudal. 
The greatest thickness of the bodyis abouttwo-thirds of its greatest height. The head 
is thicker than the body and rather short with an obtuse and moderately declivous 
snout, whose length is about two-sevenths that of the head and considerably greater 
than the diameter of the eye. The eye is rather small, placed high, its diameter 
nearly one-fifth the length of the head and scarcely more than one-half of the space 
between the eyes. The mouth is moderate, very slightly oblique, the jaws sub- 
equal or the lower slightly included ; the end of the maxilla reaches very slightly 
past the vertical through the front of the eye. Maxillary barbel not evident in this 
example, although usually present in largeindividuals. The lateral lineis abruptly 
bent downward over the first half of the pectoral, straight and nearly median dur- 
ing the rest of itscourse. The origin of the dorsal is over the twenty-seventh scale 
of the lateral line, and the ventral origin is under the twenty-fourth scale. The 
length of the dorsal base equals the combined length of the eye and snout. The first 
divided ray is the longest, its length two-thirds that of the head. The last ray is one- 
half as long as the longest. The ventral does not reach to the vent; its length 
scarcely greater than the post-orbital part of the head. The anal origin is under the 
thirty-seventh scale of the lateral line; the length of the anal base isa little more 
than one-third that of the head, and the longest anal ray equals the post-orbital part 
of head. The tail is rather slender, the least depth of caudal peduncle equalling one- 
half the greatest depth, and the distance of the anal from the origin of the middle 
caudal rays nearly equal to the length of the head. The pectoral when extended, 
reaches to below the sixteenth scale of the lateral line. The caudal is moderate in 
size and not very deeply forked, its rays being about two-thirds as long as the ex- 
ternalrays. D. ii,.7; A. ili, 8; V.8; P. 15. Scales, 9-58-6. Teeth of right side 2—5 ; 
of left side 2—4. Those of the left side strongly, and those of the right side less 
strongly hooked. Teeth of the upper row with a well developed grinding surface. 
The length of thespecimen described, No. 21,661, United States National Museum, 
from the Susquehanna river at Bainbridge, Pennsylvania, is four and one-fourth 
inches. 
The color is bluish-brown above ; sides with a distinct dusky band, not so wide as 
the eye and becoming obsolete in the adult. Young specimens have the end of this 
band more pronounced, forming a black spot at the base of the caudal. A small 
black spot always present on the front of the base of the dorsal, its size in the speci- 
men described being about two-thirds that of the eye. In life the belly is whitish. 
Breeding males have the belly rose-tinted and the black dorsal spot bordered with 
red; they have, also, rather large tubercles on the snout. 
