336 Johnny Darters. [June, 
until 1820, no writer on such matters supposed the Johnnies to 
be fully developed fishes, but thought them the young of some 
perch or bass. Even for twenty-five years later, the wise men of 
the East who study nature in books and bottles, and do not know 
her when they meet her out-of-doors, spoke of Etheostoma as a 
mere “ myth,” having “ no existence save in the fertile brain of 
men of versatile but disordered intellect,” as they were pleased to 
style Rafinesque and others who saw things not described by 
Cuvier or dreamed of by Valenciennes. 
The books call these fishes * Darters,” from Boleosoma (dart 
body, in Greek), the name of the common eastern species ; the 
realistic dwellers of the Ohio Valley call some of them hog-fishes; 
the boys call them Johnnies, and, as the boy instinct is the truest, 
Johnny Darters they shall be. 
All the darters are very small fishes; the largest barely reaches 
the minimum of size on the urchin’s string when he comes back 
from the mill-pond, while the smallest is with one or two excep- 
tions the least of all fishes. They have only the rudiment of an 
air bladder, and are therefore unable to float freely in the water 
or even to swim at all without severe manual — not caudal— 
labor. They rest quietly on the bottom for the most part, curled 
up under a stone or standing on their front and tail fins; now 
and then throwing themselves forward for a short distance by a 
broad and sudden sweep of the pectorals, to snap at some water- 
bug or to dodge the claws of some crawfish or the grasp of some 
small boy. This movement made, they come to rest, either per- 
manently or until they can bring their arms forward again. 
When a darter wishes to swim for any distance his course 15 
peculiar: at every impulse forward he rises in the water; at 
every rest he begins to fall, his face meanwhile wearing an ex- 
pression of contented helplessness. The whole movement is much 
like that of a boy learning to swim, whose nose goes under when 
he brings his arms forward after each stroke. ‘ 
The mouth of the darter bristles with teeth, which indicate its 
carnivorous habits, and its great voracity makes it in a sma 
way the terror of the aquarium, for it carries death and dismay 
to timid water-snails and the smaller crustaceans. It pounces 
upon a piece of meat with all the ferocity of a wild-cat, having 
none of the timid eagerness characterizing the minnows, aM 
little of the graceful dash of the perch and bass. 
Rafinesque says of the Johnnies of his acquaintance, “ They 
are good to eat, fried.” This is doubtless true, but I should as 
