MINNOWS. 
757 
can so clearly delineate the coloration of the Minnow 
as v. Wright’s two figures: a female and a male in 
the spawning-dress. The back is olive brown or nearly 
blackish, purer green between the dark transverse bands 
that run down towards the sides. The middle of the 
sides generally shows a pattern of equally dark shade, 
a, row of blackish brown spots, partly or completely 
coalescing into a stripe, which runs from the snout, 
interrupted by the eyes, to the lower part of the caudal 
fin, where it ends in an obliquely set spot, as a rule 
the most constant and persistent trace of this stripe, 
even in specimens preserved in spirits. The ventral 
side is light, milky white or silvery. Very often the 
colour of the sides is dashed with gold, especially on 
the gill-cover and above the dark stripe; and the vent- 
ral side assumes a reddish tint, punctated more or less 
densely with blackish brown dots, the last distribution 
of colour being most prominent on the forepart of the 
body in the males. All the fins are transparent, shad- 
ing into yellow, gray, or green. In the spawning-dress 
all the colours are brighter, most so, as usual, in the | 
males: the sides become emerald green, the belly red- 
dish, the golden lustre comes forth on the suboper- 
culum, and on the upper part of the operculum, as far 
as it is free from the side of the body and forms the 
upper margin of the gill-opening, there appears a lust- 
rous, white spot, especially conspicuous in the males 
on the black ground composed of the occiput, the pre- 
operculum, a part of the operculum, and the remainder 
of the branch iostegal membrane. In the males ready 
to spawn this lustrous white also extends to the bases 
of the paired fins and the inner anterior corner of the 
anal fin. The corners of the mouth are carmine red. 
The iris glitters with a lustre of silver and gold. In 
light environments the fish has a lighter dress, and the 
body grows somewhat transparent. The fish is also 
lighter by day than at night, has a richer dress when 
well fed than 'when starved, and changes colour rapidly 
enough under the influence of the passions. “The 
coloration varies considerably in different individuals,” 
writes Ekstrom; “it also changes speedily on the death 
of the fish. To observe the numerous and bright hues 
with which this fish is adorned, it should be seen in 
the water or a,t the moment of its capture. Though 
kept alive in a vessel of water, it changes colour soon 
enough.” In England a gold-coloured variety of the 
Minnow has been found". 
The Minnow has many Swedish names: Elritza 
(Germ. Elritze), in Halland and Bohuslan Ailing or 
Allepytta (Dan. Elbut or Elbutte ) and Alkula, in Dais- 
land Alknfva , in Oster Gothland Alkutta, in Wester 
Gothland Hundgadda and Gli, in Westerbotten Glirr , 
in Dalecarlia Qvidd and Iggling (Linnaeus), in Jemtland 
Blindsill (Olsson), in Lapland Solsensodg (Linnaeus), 
among the islands of the Baltic Hamntorsk in the Di- 
strict of Stockholm (Sundevall) and Lortbuk in Soder- 
manland (Ekstrom), and in Gothland Laxbadd (Lind- 
strom). Artedi also gives the names of Mudd and 
Skitspigg , Linnaeus that of Budd (Germ. Butt). This 
multitude of names is alone sufficient to prove the com- 
mon occurrence of the Minnow throughout Sweden and 
in the island-belts of the Baltic and the Gulf of Both- 
nia. The species is also common in Norway both to 
the extreme north (south to about 69° N. lat.) and the 
extreme south (north to about 63° N. lat.), but not in 
the intermediate districts (Collett, cf. the occurrence 
of the Perch in Norway, see above, p. 28, note d). Its 
geographical range embraces the whole of Europe — 
with the exception, as far as is known at present, of 
the Iberian Peninsula — and Northern Asia, east to the 
Amur. In Switzerland, according to Fatio, it ascends 
the cold Alpine streams and lakes to a height of nearly 
2,500 metres above the level of the sea. In Norway, ac- 
cording to Collett, it lives high up in the birch region 
of the fells, at an altitude of about 900 metres. 
The appearance 6 and habits of the Minnow have 
been compared, not without reason, to those of Salmon- 
fry in the stage termed parrs. They are also often 
found in company, the Minnow being generally an in- 
habitant of .clear streams and brooks with sandy or 
gravelly bottom. But the Minnow lives, as we have 
mentioned, not only in running fresh water and in 
lakes, but also in the sea, where it often appears in 
shoals off the piers among the island-belt. Ekstrom 
describes its habits in these latter haunts as follows: 
“It lives off rocky promontories and stony shores in 
deep water, especially where there is a current, associ- 
ates exclusively with its own kin, and seems to avoid 
places frequented by other species. Where it occurs, 
it is always found in large numbers. During the greater 
a Manlky, see Day, 1. c. 
* “Facies Truttse sen Salmonis”. 
Lin., Fn. Suec. 
