124 FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


equal to snout. The breast is naked, the nape scaled or naked; gill-covers with 
larger scales; cheek with very small scales, sometimes hardly visible; scales on the 
body small and rough, 9 above the lateral line, 17 below, and 65 from head to caudal 
base; lateral line straight, extending forward to the eye. 
The sides are straw-colored or greenish-yellow, with dark tessellations and mar- 
blings above, and with about seven large dark blotches which are partly confluent; 
the fins are barred, and there is a small spot at the base of the caudal; on the belly 
there is a series of plates along the median line which are shed at certain seasons. 
The black-sided darter or blenny darter is found from western Penn. 
sylvania to Dakota and Arkansas. In Pennsylvania it is found only in 
tributaries of the Ohio. It grows to a length of four inches, and is 
among the most beautiful of the darters. It prefers clear streams with 
gravelly bottoms, and is more active in its habits than most of the other 
species, not concealing itself so closely under stones. It is admirably 
adapted for life in the aquarium. 
140. Etheostoma variatum Krrrtanp. 
The Variegated Darter. 
The body is stout, the head short and heavy; snout blunt; the eye large, nearly 
one-fourth length of the head, which is more than one-fourth of the length with- 
out caudal; the depth about one-fifth; the upper jaw reaches to the front of the eye; 
the top of the head is rough, the head nearly scaleless; scales on the throat and nape; 
scales of the body large, in 51 rows from head to tail, 8 above and 9 below the lateral 
lines). Xs 13 FAC LL 9: 
The male is greenish, finely speckled with dusky spots; five orange bands on the 
hinder portion of the body; lower parts orange; a dark blue band on the spinous 
dorsal; the soft dorsal, pectoral and anal bluish black, with orange reflections. The 
female is less brilliantly colored than the male. 
The variegated darter is known only from the Ohio valley, and is not 
common. It grows to a length of four inches. 
141. Etheostoma zonale Copr. 
The Zoned Darter. 
The body is slender and moderately compressed; the head rather small, its length 
slightly less than one-fourth of the total without caudal; the depth equals one-fifth 
of the total; the snout is blunt and rounded; scales on the cheeks and gill-covers, 
also on the chest except in variety arcansanum ; the teeth are weak and the dorsal 
fins separated by an interspace; the spinous dorsal is longer and lower than the soft 
dorsal; the caudal is notched. 
D. XI, 12; A. II, 7. From 43 to 50 seales in the lateral line, 6 rows above it and 12 
below. 
Color olivaceous, lower parts golden; on the back are six dark brown quadrate 
spots; a brown lateral band, from which spots extend upward, alternating with 
those on the back, and eight narrow bands of dark bluish pass downward almost 
meeting around the belly; a-crimson band on the middle of the spinous dorsal and 
crimson spots in a series on the base of the soft dorsal; a black spot on the top of the 
head, one at base of pectorals and on the operculum; pectoral, anal and caudal golden 
with brown spots; a dark bar from eye downward and forward. The female is 
plainer with barred ventrals. 
The zoned darter ranges from western Pennsyivania through the 
Ohio valley and a portion of the Mississippi valley. Its western limit, 
