FISHES OF COLORADO 21 



General color greenish yellow, darker dorsally, shading to dirty white below; 

 sides with a metallic luster; fins pale, yellowish or greenish; mouth and lips 

 flesh-color; top of head olive green to almost black, with tubercles in breeding 

 males. 



Carpiodes velifer, like the other species of the genus, feeds upon mud and 

 vegetation. It spawns late in April and through the month of May. The Quill- 

 back ranges throughout the Mississippi system and west into the Rio Grande. 

 It is usually found in the quiet, weedy portions of the small streams, and since 

 such habitats are not common in Colorado streams it is not abundant in this state. 

 At present it is known only from the Cache la Poudre, although there is no very 

 apparent reason why it should not occur in the Arkansas in eastern Colorado. 

 A species, Carpiodes tumidus Baird and Girard,' now generally considered a 

 synonym of Carpiodes velifer (Rafinesque)^ was described in 1854 from the Rio 

 Grande at Fort Brown, Texas. This form should be looked for in collections 

 from the Rio Grande in Colorado near the New Mexico line, although it does not 

 occur in collections made at Alamosa. 



Colorado specimen. — Stale Teachers' College Museum: Cache la Poudre River near Greeley, 

 A. E. Beardsley. 



Subfamily Catostominae 

 The True Suckers 



Genus CATOSTOMUS LeSueur 

 The Fine-scaled Suckers 

 Catostomus LeSueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Vol. I, p. 8q, 1817. 



Dorsal fin short, often rather high, of ten to thirteen rays; body elongate, 

 subterete anteriorly, compressed in the caudal region; ventral profile almost 

 straight, dorsal profile sloping regularly; skull with large fontanelle. 



This genus includes the several species of Common Suckers of North America. 

 Three species of Catostomus are known to occur in Colorado. 



a. Scales in the lateral line less than 85, those in the posterior half of the body quite large; species 



of the Mississippi drainage C. commersonii (Lac^pede) 



aa. Scales in the lateral Une go or more. 



b. Mouth rather broad; maximum length of the median free portion of the lower lip about 

 2 in the width of the lower lip; distance from the middle of the lower jaw to the angle of 

 the mouth greater than the length of the free portion of the lower lip; species of the Platte 



drainage C. griseus (Girard) 



bb. Mouth narrower and longer than in the preceding species; maximum length of the median 

 free portion of the lower lip i . 5 to i . 7 in the width of the lower lip; distance from the middle 

 of the lower jaw to the angle of the mouth barely equal to or usually less than the length of 

 the free portion of the lower lip; species of the Colorado River drainage. 



C. latlpinnis Baird and Girard 

 ■ Baird and Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 28, 1854. 

 ' Jordan and Eversunn, Bull. 47, U.S. Nat. Uus., p. 167, i8g6. 



