JOHNNY DARTERS. 31 
surely evades your clutch. You can catch a 
weasel asleep when you can put your finger on 
one of these. It is a slim, narrow, black, pirate- 
rigged little fish, with a long pointed head, and a 
projecting, prow-like lower jaw. It carries no flag, 
but is colored like the rocks, among which it lives. 
It is dark brown in hue, with a dusky spot on each 
scale, so that the whole body seems covered with 
lengthwise stripes; and these are further relieved 
by cross-bands of the same color. Its fins, espe- 
cially the broad fan-shaped caudal, are likewise 
much checkered with spots of black. The spines 
of the dorsal fin are very low; and each of these in 
the male ends in a little fleshy pad of a rusty-red 
color, the fish’s only attempt at ornamentation. 
The fan-tail darter chooses the coldest and swift- 
est waters; and in these, as befits his form, he leads 
an active, predatory life. He is the terror of water-: 
snails and caddis-worms, and the larve of mosqui- 
toes. Inthe aquarium this darter is one of the most 
interesting of fishes; for though plainly colored 
it is very handsome, and in its movements is the 
most graceful of all the darters. Its mouth opens 
wider than that of any of the others, and it is fuller 
of bristling teeth. Its large, yellow-rimmed black 
eyes are ever on the watch. The least of a “ fish” 
and the most of a darter, the fan-tail is worthily 
left as the type of the genus Etheostoma, in which 
it was first placed by its discoverer, Rafinesque. 
We often brought home with us a “Johnny,” 
“ Speck,” or ‘‘ Crawl-a-bottom,” of a different type 
from any of those whose habits we already knew. 
It had a very sharp nose which projected over its 
