340 Johnny Darters. : Jane, 
an undefined olive to a deep, rich green, scarcely found elsewhere 
in the animal world except on the backs of frogs. 
The same tint flashes out on the branching rays of the caudal 
fin, and may be faintly seen struggling through the white on the 
belly. The blotches nearest the middle of the back become jet- 
black, and thickly sprinkled everywhere are little shiny spots of 
a clear, bronze orange. In the aquarium, Diplesium seems more 
shy and retiring, too much of a fine lady to scramble for angle- 
worms or to snap at the “ bass-feed.” She is usually hidden 
among the plants, or curled up under an arch of stones or ina 
geode. Specimens may be caught most abundantly in rapid, 
gravelly streams, but we often find stray individuals lying on 
sandy bottoms, the proper home of the Pleurolepis. 
Boleosoma effulgens! is the darter of darters. Although our 
earliest aquarium friend, for the very first specimen placed there 
showed us by a rapid ascent of the river-weed how “a Johnny 
could climb trees,” he has still many resources which we have 
never learned. Whenever we try to catch one with the hand we 
begin with all the uncertainty which characterized our first at- 
tempt, even if we have him in a two-quart pail. 
He may be known from his cousins by his short first dorsal fin 
of nine spines, and by the absence of all color save soft brown on 
white that has the faintest tinge of yellow, but not a dirty white 
at all. The other nine-spined darters, Peecilichthys, ete. (Fig- 
ure 24 represents a species of this genus), have a different 
MIT DRR mouth, a projecting 
lower jaw, the body 
deeper, and the lateral 
line vanishing on the 
back of the body. 
The brown on the 
(Fig. 24.) PORCILICHTHYS. sides of Boleosoma 15 
arranged in seven or eight W-shaped marks, below which are @ 
few flecks of the same color. Covering the sides above the lat- 
eral line are wavy markings, — gathered into blotches on the 
a Boleosoma effulgens is the common species in the neighborhood of Indianapolis, t0 
which latitude all the accounts here given must be referred. Eastward occurs 
soma olmstedi, which is somewhat larger and has the cheeks thickly scaly. We are not 
quite sure that the change of color in Diplesium depends on the season, but out obser 
vations thus far indicate it. 
2 Not as represented in the figure, in which the body is also represented 
The cuts accompanying this article are outlines only and erroneous in many 
details. While of much value as giving a general idea of the Etheostomoids, 
theless the authors disclaim any responsibility for them. A, 
A 
too deep. 
of the 
never- 
