86 FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


The females are olivaceous with silvery; sides traversed by fifteen to twenty-five 
narrow dark cross bands; fins pale. The males, at least in the breeding season, are 
pale olive with about twenty pearly white cross bands. 
The barred killifish, also known as the spring mummichog and toothed 
minnow, inhabits the Great Lakes, and their tributaries, east to Massa- 
chusetts, south to Virginia and Indiana, west to Colorado, according to 
Cope, south to Texas. In Ohio, and west, is found a variety with very 
distinct and somewhat irregular bands and the back always spotted, 
which has been called variety menona by Jordan and Copeland. LEast- 
ern specimens have the back unspotted and the cross bands faint and 
regular, but extremely variable in number. The difference in colora- 
tion of the sexes is very striking, especially in the breeding season 
when the adult males have silvery cross bands. The barred killifish 
grows to a length of four inches. It runs down into brackish waters 
along the east coast and ascends far up the streams, delighting in cold 
water. This fish has no importance except as bait and food for larger 
species. In the brackish waters along the coast it is eaten in large 
numbers by the striped bass and the weakfish. The black bass and trout 
also feed upon it. 
98. Fundulus heteroclitus (Linyxvs.) 
The Common Killifish (igure 52.) 
The body is short and stout in both sexes; its depth one-fourth of the length in- 
cluding the tail and slightly greater than the length of the head. The head is mod- 
erately short, with an obtuse snout and the space between the eyes very flat. The 
lower jaw projects slightly. The eye is about two-thirds as long as the snout and 
one-fifth the length of the head. The pectoral reaches to the ninth or tenth row of 
scales; its length is equal to the base of the dorsal. The dorsal is considerably 
nearer ta the end of the tail than to the tip of the snout ; its longest ray in the female 
one-half length of head. Theanal is entirely under the dorsal; itslongestray equals 
the longest of the dorsal, its base about one-third lengthof head. The ventral origin 
is under about the twelfth scale of the median line, its length, two-thirds that of 
the pectoral, considerably less than half head; when extended it reaches nearly to 
vent. The least depth of the caudal peduncle is one-seventh of the length including 
caudal. All the fins have rounded outlines and the caudal is especially convex. 
Scales 14, 35. D.11; A. 11. 
The females are nearly uniform olivaceous, lighter below ; caudal with a median 
narrow band of a paler color; most of the scales have a narrow dusky submarginal 
streak ; the scales of the head are very irregularly arranged and unequal in size. 
The males are dark greenish with many narrow irregular silvery bars on the sides 
and with the belly yellowish or orange. The sides are also more or less spotted 
with white or yellow. The dorsal, anal and caudal are dark with many small pale 
spots. On the last rays of the dorsal there is frequently a dark blotch, which some- 
times is surrounded by paler giving it an ocellated appearance. In the young this 
blotch is often subdivided into two parts. Narrow dark bands are sometimes present 
in the young male. 
The killifish is not a common fish in Pennsylvania, being for the most 
part a marine species, but has been found in the Delaware by Prof. 
Cope. It is frequently called mummichog or saltwater minnow, and the 
name mud-fish has also been applied to it. In the vicinity of Boston it 
