71 



from spawn deposited in the water after the late floods. They 

 were found on the side of the bottom next the bluff. It may be that a 

 few adults succeed in avoiding the current on this side and remain 

 here; but they are certainly rare. Not a single tadpole was noticed 

 in any of the bottom-land sloughs and lakes; but a few small 

 tadpoles of toads were noted in shallow pools of Cedar Creejj. 

 All these amphibians were feeding on terrestrial insects, — chiefly 

 beetles belonging to the families Carabidse, Staphyliuidte, and 

 Heteroceridjip, together with a small fly, and leaf-hoppers of 

 the family Jassid;u. One cricket frog had eaten a single aquatic 

 larva (the Acilius described below). There was little difference in 

 the food of the different species from any one locality. Along 

 Cedar Creek a small black fly, which was common on moist sand, 

 was eaten largely. 



FISHES. 



The fishes taken from the sloughs and lakes of the bottom-land 

 at Qiiincy, may be placed in three groups: creek fishes, pond or 

 slough fishes, and river fishes. To the creek fishes belong most of 

 the minnows, the" sand darters, and the common sucker, — altogether 

 about half as many species as there are in each of the two re- 

 maining grouiDs. The individuals belonging here were prob- 

 ably less than one per cent, of those taken from the pools. This 

 scarcity was due in some measure to the abundance of predaceous 

 fishes in these waters; but the species of this group taken were 

 mostly such as are ordinarily found common in small creeks, and 

 were probably only stragglers from the great body of individuals 

 w^hich live in such streams. Several of the minnows, however, 

 deserve to be placed among river fishes as far as fitness for life 

 in the river is concerned. Such species as Hyboj^sis amblops, 

 Noiro^ns atherinoides, N. jejunus, and Hybognathus nuchaliSy 

 though occurring in small streams, generally prove abundant in 

 our rivers, and are certainly perfectly at home there. 



I have considered as pond and slough fishes, such as the bull 

 pouts, the top minnows, the two pickerels, the two croppies, the 

 several species of sunfishes, the large-mouthed black bass, and 

 the ringed perch. The members of this group were commoner in 

 the sloughs than were those of the preceding group, but were not 

 as abundant in species or individuals as the next. In the lakes 

 and sloughs outside the levee, probably these pond fishes did not 

 constitute more than one fifth of the individuals taken; but inside 

 the levee they composed one half of those taken in all situa- 

 tions. Some of them were evidently breeding in these protected 

 waters, and I do not think any member of the group was doing 

 so in the sloughs of the lower bottom-land. 



The third and largest group includes river fishes, such as the 

 gars, dogfish, channel cat, morgan cat, shovel fish, buffalo, carp, 

 several minnows, the Ohio shad, pile perch, striped bass, white 

 bass, red-spotted sunfish, and the white perch ( Aplodinotus). 



