JOHNNY DARTERS. 21 
the very largest but six or eight. But small though 
they are, they are the most interesting in habits, 
the most graceful in form, and many of them the 
most brilliant in color of all fresh-water fishes. 
The books call them “ Darters; ” for one of the first 
species known was named Bo/eosoma, and that in 
Greek means “ dart-body,” —a name most appro- 
priate to them all. The realistic dwellers in the 
Ohio Valley call some of them “ Hog-fish,” and 
the boys call them “Johnnies.” Certainly the 
boys ought to know, — and Johnnies they are, and 
Darters they are; so Johnny Darters they shall 
be, Their first introduction to science was in 18109, 
when Rafinesque gave to them their scientific 
name of Etheostoma. This name seems to mean 
“strainer-mouth; ” but the ‘eccentric naturalist,” 
whose peculiar use of the Greek language was not 
the least of his eccentricities, says that it means 
“ various-mouth,” because no two of those he 
knew! have the mouth alike. But whatever it 
may mean, E¢hkeostoma is their name, and Rafi- 
nesque their godfather; and we may call them 
Johnnies for short. 
Rafinesque said of the Johnnies that he knew 
“they are good to eat fried.” I suppose that 
he had tried them; but we have not. We should 
as soon think of filling our pan with wood-warblers 
as to make a meal of them. The good man goes 
a-fishing not for “ pot-luck,” but to let escape “the 
Indian within him.” 
The Johnny Darter deserves our especial atten- 
1 These were Zrhcostoma flabellare, Percina caprodes, and Diple- 
sion blenniotdes. 
