shallows and eacli time some prize would 

 call forth a shout of joy from the boyishly 

 excited men. In all we tallied six species 

 of darters: Johnny (^Boleosoma nigrum^, 

 Fantail {Ethcostoma Jlabe/lare) , Rainl)ow 

 or Soldier {Etheostojua roe rule urn) , Least 

 (Microperca punctulata) , Black-sided 

 (lladroplents (isj)ro) and Cireen-sided (Di- 

 plcsion blamioides) . 



These strange little cousins of the perch, 

 so changed in their mode of life and in 

 their adaptations for that life, stick to the 

 shelter of the rocks in the few inches of 

 rushing water and do not desert it for the 

 seemingly safer waters of the nearby deep 

 pools. After watching these darters all 

 Winter in the aquariums we readily under- 

 stand their abliorence of the deep water, 

 for tliey are so fited for scrambling among 

 and under rocks and even for diving under 

 Hand that they are practically unfited for 

 swimming and seem very awkward in try- 

 ing to get to the top of the aquarium. 



Having collected as many darters as the 

 members .could properly care for, and liav- 

 ing thrown back into the stream all but 

 the choicest specimens, we set out for the 

 deeper and quieter stretches of the stream 

 in a pasture abov the bridge. Being shy 

 of boots. John demonstrated his virility 

 by stripping to shirt and "gym" i)ants and 

 wading in that icy cold water for three or 

 four hours. He was a great help to the 

 expedition but we feard it would be at the 

 cost of a life. Fortunately we can say he 

 did not even take cold. In the muddy, 

 three-foot-deep pools we succeeded in cap- 

 turing some hog suckers iCatoslouins ?ii- 

 gric(in.s-), stone rollers {Catiiposloinfi 

 ano7)ialu»i) , and some sucker-mouthd 

 minnows { Phcnacobius Jiiirahi/ix). The 

 siick( rs did not seem to adapt themselves 

 to aquarium life for they soon died, but 

 the rest are still thriving in the school 

 tanks. The most exciting episode of this 

 part of th{> trip was tlie attem))t of Carl 

 to leap across a little creek with two ])ails 

 of fishes in his hands. Landing on a slij)- 



])('ry, nniddy bank, his feet playd him false 

 and there was a yell, a floundering fisher- 

 man and two masses of flojjping fishes. 

 Wildly we scrambled to the rescue, not of 

 Carl, but of those precious darters, rapidly 

 somersaulting down the slijjpery bank to 

 the beckoning water below. True to fisher- 

 men's luck we lost the two rarest speci- 

 uuiis, the black-sided and green-sided dart- 

 ers, and no one knows how many extra 

 fine rainbows. 



After repairing the damage as best we 

 could, we cut across the fields to a jioint 

 in the creek about half a mile away where 

 Floyd assured us Red-bellied Dace (C/iro- 

 somus-erythrogastei-) were waiting to try 

 our mettle. This haunt was a broad and 

 deep part of the creek just above a narrow, 

 deep channel thru which the water rushed 

 as thru a mill-race. The bottom of the 

 pool was sandy, tho the banks on the 

 deeper side were miry nmd. These grace- 

 ful, aristocratic denizens of the pools of 

 Illinois streams provd almost more than a 

 match for four men, for, in spite of our 

 having two of our party upstream throw- 

 ing in stones to scare the fishes away from 

 that avenue of escape, we were able to cap- 

 ture, after an hour's seining, only a half 

 dozen of the wary little beauties. Even 

 the beasts of the fields seemd to be in 

 league with the little dace, for just as we 

 got ready to make our hauls, a band of 

 horses in the adjoining pasture dasht thru 

 the stream a few feet away from us, 

 scaring our fishes away and s])attering 

 us with uHid and water. In s))ite of 

 the heroic efforts of Carl and Floyd 

 h) head lh( ni oft", these horses persisted in 

 (lashing thru the stream, much to our an- 

 noyance. And after capturing the dace 

 we found we were not at all sure of our 

 prizes, for the lifting of the pail cover 

 was a signal for all sorts of acrobatic feats 

 that resulted in some of them lea})ing clear 

 out of the ])ail and back to freedom in 

 I he stream. 



(CoNCi.UDEn ON Pace 7) 



