SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



149 



under 2.5 inches) were collected by the writer in Pasquotank River and Roanoke 

 River near Plymouth in April. The maximum length is about 4 inches. 



Many species of food and game fishes, in fresh and salt water, feed largely 

 on this killi-fish, which, on account of its abundance, is one of the important 

 "minnows". 



Fig. 54. Spring Minnow. Fiindvlus diaphanus. Female. 



The prominent external sexual differences in this species were first pointed 

 out by the present writer in 1892, in the paper above cited, on fishes of the lower 

 Potomac River, in which the figures of the two sexes here given were originally 

 printed. All immature specimens are marked by dark vertical bars on a pale 

 olivaceous background; when the fish reaches a length of about 2 inches, the 

 differential colors begin to appear. 



136. FUNDULUS RATHBXJNI Jordan & Meek. 

 RatlLbuii's Killi-fislL. 



Fundulua raihbuni Jordan & Meek, in Jordan, 1889a, 356, pi. xliv; Allemance Creek near Greensboro, N. C. 

 Jordan. 18896, 133, 134, pi. xiv, fig. 7; Reedy Fork, South Buffalo Creek, Little Allemance Creek and other 

 tributaries of Haw River; and Jumping Run, tributary of Yadkin River, near Salisbury. Jordan & Ever- 

 mann, 1896, 649, pi. cv, fig. 280. 





•».'■»" 



Fig. 55. Rathbun's Killi-pish. FundvZus raihbuni. 



Diagnosis. — ^Depth contained 4.5 times in total length, head'3.8 times in length; snout 

 sharp; eye about .25 length of head; mouth small; scales in lateral series 38, in transverse 

 series 12; two rows of scales on cheeks; fins small, dorsal rays 11, anal rays 11, caudal rounded. 

 Color: pale green, with small irregular o)3long dark brown spots scattered on head and body; 

 male with scales dark-edged; fins yellowish with speckled base in male, plain in female. 

 (Named for Dr. Richard Rathbun, formerly of the Bureau of Fisheries, now of the Smithsonian 

 Institution.) 



