980 FISHES — PEECID^. 



Habitat, Upper Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, and tributaries of Lake Erie and 

 Lake Michigan. In much of tha Ohio Valley the most abundant member of the family, 

 swarming in all streams. 



Habits^ — It prefers the channels on gravelly bottoms, seldom ascending 

 brooks. It is less active than many of its relatives, but is the most 

 gaudily colored of all. Stories of its having first appeared in different 

 streams at the time of the outbreak of the late civil war are still extant, 

 there being something patriotic about its red and blue coloration. For 

 similar reasons it is sometimes called " soldier-fish " by the very few per- 

 sons who know of its existence. 



153. PCECILICHTHYS SPECTABILIS AgaSsiz 



Pcecilichthys spectabilis, Agassiz, Ainer. Journ. Sci. Arts, 1854, 304. — Jordan, Man. Vert., 

 2d Ed., 1878, 226, and elsewhere. ' . 



Description. — Very similar to the preceding, but more elongate and rather more com- 

 pressed ; the colors somewhat similar, but the upper portion of the sides with distinct 

 blackish stripes along the rows of the scales, and the ground color of the back and 

 sides having a peculiar whitish or bleached appearance ; the two dorsal iius usually well 

 separated; head 4; depth 4^; D. X, 12; A, II, 7; scales 5-40-7; Lat 1. on 20 to 25 

 scales. Length 2 to 3 inches. 



Habitat, Ohio Valley and Upper Mississippi Valley, with the precsding and nearly 

 equally abundant, but frequenting chiefly the small brooks and spring runs. 



Habits — If this be a distinct species (which I doubt), and not merely 

 the brook form of the preceding, it dififers from the latter in its place of 

 abode. It abounds in the little brooks, where it is as plentiful as P. 

 cceruleus is in its larger streams. 



PcEf'iLioHTHYS EOS Jordan and Copeland. 

 Red-sided Darter. 



Boleichthys eos, Jordan and Copkland, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1877, 46 — Jordan, 

 Man. Vert. 2d Ed., 1878, 2:8. 



Description. — Body elongate, slender, somewhat compressed, especially behind, rather 

 heavy forwaids, with very long caudal peduncle; head long, rouuded in froot; mouth 

 small, little oblique, the upper jaw a very little the longer; dorsal fins high, about 

 equal ; caudal truncate ; cheaks, operoles, and neck closely scaled ; breast with a median 

 series of small scales, or none; jaceral line developed on 22 to 26 scales, arched upward 

 above pectorals ; color dark olive, with darker markings; ten or twelve dorsal spots or 

 bars, and as many shoir, dark bluo bars, not continuous with them; the inter- 

 spaces between these bars, as well as most of the ventral region, bright crimson in the 

 males, nearly plaiu in the females ; lowei parr,s of the sides, cheeks, etc., with various 

 sharply defined, bat irregular black markingw; second dorsal, caudal, and pectorals 

 strongly marked with wavy bands ; first dorsal bright blue in the males, with a broad 

 median band of crimson, speckled in the females; top of head dark; black streaks 



