BREEDING HABITS OF RAINBOW DARTER. 5 I 



every direction from X and over distances of from four inches to 

 four or five feet. He raises his first dorsal occasionally as he is 

 driven about. It seems possible that at a distance the other 

 males mistake him for a female. While there is in the case of 

 this male no record of spawning, notes of other days observa- 

 tions show that the small, dull males succeed occasionally in 

 spawning. They sometimes rush into an area guarded by a 

 brilliant male and spawn with the female, while the brilliant male 

 is chasing away other intruders. They also often move close to 

 the female and into the mantle of males which covers her while 

 she is spawning. Yet relatively few times are these small males 

 successful in spawning. 



Fish C {Female). 



From my notes of the afternoon of May 1 2, when watching 

 a single female, I give a sketch of the hour from 4:15 to 5:15. 

 At the beginning of this time a small, dull male poised near 

 a female gave her four to six taps with his lower jaw just 

 back of her first dorsal. She started to bury herself, then two 

 bright males came, she moved forward about 18 inches, followed 

 by a brilliant male with which she spawned after burying her- 

 self. A little later followed by a dull male she came near a 

 brighter male and he pursued her for about two feet. A dull 

 male came and tapped her side. She started and moved quickly 

 forward and to the side two or three feet to where there was a 

 large brilliant male. He drove off the small males, she buried 

 herself and the two spawned. Two other males crowded in at 

 her side during the spawning. After spawning the fish were 

 quiet for a few moments when the female moved to the shelter 

 of a stone and remained quiet about one half hour. She then 

 moved to the opposite side of the stream and was quiet again. 

 At the end of the hour a small dull male tapped her side, she 

 moved forward, buried her pectorals and a medium sized dark 

 colored male spawned with her. Thus in a single hour this 

 female spawned three times, each time with a more brilliant male, 

 while during the same period three attempts of small or dull 

 males to spawn with her were frustrated at their beginning. 



These are samples of the records of individual fish. I also 



