 1876.] Johnny Darters. 339 
hardy, and withal he “ has a way of his own,” as Barney Mullins 
said of Thoreau. 
The most simply beautiful of all fresh-water fishes is the green- 
sided darter (Diplesium blennioides ; Figure 23 represents a 
MMi MY, 
(Fre. 22.) atok. 
species of this genus). He is not, like the Pæcilichthys, an ani- 
mated rainbow, but has the beauty of green grass, wild violets, or 
a log covered with green moss. As we watch him in the water, 
with his bright, blended colors and gentle ways, once more, with 
Izaak Walton’s Angler, “We sit on cowslip banks, hear the 
birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as the si- 
lent, silver streams which we see glide so quietly by us.” 
During the ordinary business of the year the Diplesium, like 
Most sensible fishes and men, dresses plainly. It is a serious 
matter to get any time for contemplation when the streams are 
low and food scarce, and a plain coat may ward off danger as 
well as facilitate attack. Atall times, however, he may be known 
by these marks: the fins are all large, and the first dorsal has 
thirteen spines ; the back is covered with zigzag markings down 
to the lateral line,. which is complete and continuous, while be- 
low it extend eight or nine arrow-shaped, olive spots, which are 
More or less connected above, sometimes as if forming a wavy 
line ; these are on a nearly white ground, which blends with the 
uniform coloration of the belly. The eyes are quite large and 
Prominent, the snout is short and rounded, giving a decidedly 
frog-like profile, while on a front view the little, inferior mouth 
Seems puckered with « prunes and prisms.” The roof of the 
mouth is toothless, though all the other Johnnies have small 
teeth on the front part of the roof behind the jaws, the region 
technically known as the vomer. 
But when the first bluebirds give warning by their shivering 
and bodiless notes that spring is coming, then the Diplesium 
puts on his wedding clothes and becomes in fact the green-sided 
r. The dorsal fins become bright grass-green, with a scarlet 
band at the base ; the broad anal has a tinge of the deepest em- 
» while every spot and line upon the side has turned from 
