THE JOHNNY DARTERS 
m ARTERS they are by name and habit; and 
% it is the boy who spends some of his time 
“a> studying the bottoms of swift brooks who 
makes the acquaintance of johnny darters, 
for they like to rest, head up-stream, on 
the bottom of swift, clear brooks. They are well- 
called ‘‘darters,”’ since their movements are so rapid 
when they are frightened that the eye can scarcely 
follow them. There is something comical in the 
appearance of a darter, with his alert eyes, placed 
almost on the top of his head; no wonder he is called 
“Johnny.” A johnny will look at you with one eye, 
and then turn as quick as a flash and look you over 
with the other eye in a manner that shows how curi- 
ous and interested he is. 
The johnny darter has a queer shaped body; 
for his head and shoulders seem to be the largest 
part of him. The astonished and anxious look on 
his face is the result of the peculiar position of the 
eyes; the short snout and the wide mouth, give the 
johnny a face that is frog-like. 
We are told that the pectoral fins of fish corre- 
spond to the front legs of animals; and the ventral 
fins to the hind legs. We can well believe this, if 
we watch the johnny darter in the aquarium, where 
he seems in a fair way to develop his fins into legs. 
The pectoral fins are large and strong, and are very 
close to the ventrals; when he rests upon the gravel, 
he supports himself upon one or both of these pairs 
of fins. Dr. Jordan says that the darters can climb 
up a water weed with their paired fins. I have even 
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