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Evpomot:s aureus, Wahl. Pumpkin SEED. Bream. 
This species swarms in the lakes and ponds of northeastern LIlli- 
nois, but is much less abundant in the Illinois R.; and in the 
southern part of the State is almost unknown. The cause of this 
limitation of its range is apparently climatic; as there is certainly 
nothing in its food, nor, apparently, in any of its habits, to exclude 
it from our southern waters. Indeed, I do not see that its place is 
taken by any other fish to the southward. No other, unless Hupo- 
motis pallidus, resembles it in food, and this is too infrequent to 
replace it. My knowledge of its food is based upon the study of 
twenty-five specimens, ranging from one and one-half inches up- 
ward, taken from the Illinois, Fox and Calumet rivers, and from 
Long, Crystal and Nipisink lakes and Lake George, in central and 
northern Illinois and Indiana. The months of May, June, July, 
August and October are represented by these specimens. 
Food of the Young. 
The nine smaller specimens, from one and one-half to two inches 
long, show at once two prominent peculiarities of the food. ‘The 
larve of Chironomus compose fifty-one per cent. of the food, and 
Entomostraca of the order Ostracoda (cyprids), twenty-six. As both 
these are found most abundantly in muddy bottoms, it is evident 
that the fish is, at least at first, a bottom feeder. Traces of mol- 
lusks appear thus early, as well as a few ephemerid larve (five per 
cent.). The remainder of the food was insects’ eggs and daphnids, 
—chiefly Simocephalus americanus—(twelve per cent.). Chydorus was 
found in five specimens, but in too small quantity to figure in the 
averages. 
Five specimens were studied, between two and three inches long. 
In these the same food characters continue, modified somewhat by 
the introduction of larger objects. The Chironomus larve stand at 
forty-four per cent., and the cyprids at eighteen per cent. Four- 
teen per cent. of Allorchestes and eleven per cent. of Neuroptera 
larve are the only important elements remaining. ‘Two per cent. of 
young Unios were noticed. Nearly half of the food of two larger 
specimens, between two and three inches long, consisted of mol- 
lusks,—chiefly Physa. A few Chironomi and about equal quanti- 
ties of ephemerid larve and Allorchestes were all the remaining 
food. Entomostraca therefore disappear at this point. 
Food of the Adult. 
Forty-six per cent. of the food of the nine adults consisted of 
Mollusca, including Planorbis, Amnicola and Valvata tricarinata, and 
six per cent. of undetermined bivalves. 
The insect food was twenty per cent. of the whole, Crustacea 
twenty-two per cent., and vegetation twelve per cent. Half of the 
last was Chara, and the remainder chiefly Myriophyllum and Algze. 
The Crustacea were all Allorchestes and Asellus. The insects in- 
cluded a trace of Chironomus larve and a few water beetles (Hydro- 
philide), and the usual Neuroptera larve, among which case-flies 
of the genus Leptocerus were noticed. 
