24 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
and it may readily be caught on a small hook 
baited with a worm. We often meet an urchin 
with two or three of them strung through the gills 
on a forked stick, along with “ red-eyes,” “ stone- 
toters,” ‘“ horny-heads,” and other “ boys’ fish.” 
At such times we generally buy the hog-fish for a 
cent, cut it open to look at the air-bladder, which 
the books say it does not have, and then lay it 
away with the rest of our treasures in the bottle 
of alcohol. We find Percina usually in rapid and 
rather deep water,—as deep as we can wade in 
when seining in hip-boots. We rarely find them 
small enough for ordinary aquarium purposes; and 
the living specimen before us, though wonderfully 
quick and graceful in its movements, has shown 
_ little that is noteworthy, save his courage, his fond- 
ness for angle-worms, and a possible disposition to 
bury himself in the sand. There is something in 
the expression of his face, as he rests on his ‘ hands 
and feet” on a stone, that is remarkably lizard- 
like, suggesting the Blue-tailed Skink (ELumeces 
fasciatus). : 
We next come to the fine gentleman of the 
family, the Black-sided Darter (Hadropterus aspro 
Cope and Jordan). This one we may know by its 
colors, The ground hue is asalmon yellow; the 
back is regularly and beautifully marbled with black 
in a peculiar and handsome pattern. On the sides, 
from the head to the tail, runs a jet-black band, 
which is widened at intervals into rounded spots 
which contrast sharply with the silvery color of the 
belly; or we may say that on each side is a chain 
of confluent round black blotches. Sometimes 
