14 



00. Scales larger, 35 to 60 In lateral line; premaiillary protractile. 



p. Head not usually much depressed; mouth usually inferior; common 



species H YB0P8IS . 



pp. Head broad and mufh depressed; mouth terminal; rare species. 



Flattgobio. 



A.— LONG-INTESTINED MiNNOWS. 



Campostoma anomalum (RafinesqueK — Dough-belly; Stone-roller; Greased 

 Chub; Creek Chub. 



Differs from all other minnows in having its elongate intestine spirally wound around the 

 air-bladder. Mouth inferior and somewhat sucker-like, but the lips smooth. Body mottled 

 with black; the fins hii^hly colored in spring, and the mules at this season with tubercles on 

 the bead and many parts of the body. A flue bait minnow, easily taken with a minnow seine 

 in small creeks of running water; very tenacious of life in the minnow pall and on the hook. 



Abundant throughout the State. More common in small than in larger streams. 



Oxygeneum pulverulentum Forbes. 



A single specimen of this flsh was taken in 1885 from the Illinois River by Professor 

 Forbes, which was so different from any known fish that it seemed necessary to refer it to 

 an entirely new genus and species. As it ban not been since taken, a doubt is suggested 

 whether the fish may not be a hybrid or merely an example of very wide variation. There 

 is no warrant, however, for discarding the genus and species until breeding experiments 

 show that it is a hybrid, or until the discovery of more specimens removes the doubts. 



Chrosomus erythrogaster (Rafinesque). — Red-bellied Dace. 



A very surprising little minnow, found in the muddler small creeks. The scales are very 

 fine. The color of the female is plain olive, silvery or white beneath, with black dots on the 

 back and narrow silvery and black stripes on the i'ides; in the msles the white is replaced 

 by gorgeous cht-rry-red shading to golden forward. The base of the dorsal is red; the other 

 fins and tho gill-covers (opercles) are a rich yellow. The red color, while very deep and - 

 rich, is peculiarly evanescent, disappearing and reappearing often in a surprising manner. 

 It is not a distinctly spring coloration as has hitherto been supposed; sjecimens in our 

 aquaria, on the contrary, have shown high color in almost all the summer months and as 

 late as October. 



Occurs frequently in the Rock River basin and in creeks flowing into the Illinois River in 

 LaSalle county. Has been taken from creeks near Canton and Farmlngton, from a spring 

 branch near Wolrab Mills. Hardin county, and from creeks in Union county: also reported 

 from a spring in southwestern Clark county. 



Hybognathus nuchalis (Agassiz). — Silvery Minnow. 



A large silvery minnow, with large scales, spindle-shaped body, and pointed head. The 

 lower jaw is thin and hard, with a small hard lump just inside the mouth in front. Dies too 

 quickly to be a good bait minnow. 



Chiefly found in deep muddy water in large creeks or rivers. Somewhat rarely found in 

 the swift gravelly streams of central Illinois. Abundant to the southeastward, near the 

 Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Collected once from a tributary of Lake Michigan, at South 

 Chicago. 



Hybognathus nubila (Forbes). 



A small flsh; in appearance very much like Notropii* hfterodon, the similarity extend- 

 ing to the form of the body, head, and fins, and the black stripe on the side which passes 

 through the eye and around the snout. The edge of the lower jaw is hard and sharp and has 

 a perceptible tubercle on its upper side at the tip. Length rarely greater than 2 inches (to 

 base of caudal fin). 



We have collections of this species from the Ohio River at Cairo, from the neighborhood 

 of Peoria, and from Galena, Carmi. and Henry. 



Pimephales promelas (Rafinesque). — Black-head; Minnow; Fat-head. 



A short thick flsh with very blunt head. The males in spring very dark in color, and 

 with two rows of large tubercles around the snout. Differs from P. no^afus in the thicker 

 body and in the Incompleteness of the lateral line. 



Distributed through the Mississippi. Rock. Illinois, and Kaskaskia basins, usually in 

 the deep holes of small sluggish creeks; also found in the small creeks of Coles county, in 

 the Wabash basin. Taken, in all. from 64 localities. 



Pimephales notatus (Rafinesque). — Blunt-nosed Minnow. 



Differs from P. promelas in having a rather slender body with the lateral line complete: 

 tuberculatlons and colors not so noticeable as In the preceding. 



