58 



A LIST OF THE NATIVE FISHES OF ILLIN(JIS,WITH KEYS. 



By Thomas Large. 



As this list is intended particularly for the '"man who goes a-fish- 

 ing/' it is desirable that it contain as much information as possible 

 and at the same time be free from all unnecessary technical detail. 

 Although we might wish entirely to avoid scientific names, this is 

 obviously impossible when we remember that at least sixty of our 

 fishes have no conmion names, and that such names as bass, perch, 

 stone-roller, horny-head, grindle, stickle back, etc., all have more than 

 one application, the same name being apijlied not infrequently to very 

 different fishes. 



Of our sj)ecies about eighty never attain a greater adult length than 

 five inches. These are very commonly taken for the young of other 

 fishes, and are referred to indiscriminately as "minnows"' by the unin- 

 formed. It is thought that no apology is needed for directing at- 

 tention to these smaller members of our fish fauna and including them 

 in a list of the native fishes of Illinois. 



Statements concerning distribution and other data made use of in 

 this list are, with a very few exceptions, based upon collections made 

 in Illinois by the State Laboratory of Natural History, at I'rliana. 



In the use of the keys allowance must be made for individual vari- 

 ations, which are frequently considerable. No determination by the 

 key alone should be thought of as final, but only as leading to a 

 description with which the specimen may be compared. As Jordan's 

 "Manuel of Vertebrates" (5th to 8th editions) is probably more acces- 

 sible than any other previously published list, comparison with 

 descriptions found there is suggested, and to facilitate such compari- 

 son references to the species numbers of that list are given when the 

 nomenclature has been changed. The nomenclature employed in 

 this paper is that of Bulletin No. 47 of the United States National 

 Museum. 



