the fishes seem to fade out; these blotches grow pale, and no longer meet; but in an instant they may regain their original form and shade. This latter change can be induced by the offer of food, and it is of course due to muscular action on the scales which cover the darker pigment. A male in our aquarium underwent almost instantly an entire change of coloration upon the introduction of a female fish of the same species recognized by him as his affinity. Although the two have been together for some weeks, the novelty has not yet worn off; and although his colors vary much from one hour to another, he has never yet quite reverted to his original hues. The form of the blacksided darter is more graceful than that of any other, and his movements have little of that angular jerkiness which characterizes his relatives.

The fins of Hadrcpterus, like those of Percina, are long and large, the number of dorsal spines being about fourteen. A notable peculiarity in both species is the presence of a row of shields, or enlarged scales, along the middle line of the abdomen. These may help to protect that part from the friction of the stony bottom. They seem to be shed sometimes; but when or why this happens we do not know. Hadropterus delights in clear running water, and may be found in most streams. south and west of New York. It is especially desirable for aquaria, being hardier than any other fish as pretty, and prettier than any other fish as hardy, and withal with "a way of his own," as an Irish laborer, Barney Mullins, once said to us of Thoreau.

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One of the most simply beautiful of all fishes is the Green-sided Darter (Diplesion blennioides Rafinesque). He is not, like the Pacilichthys, an animated rainbow; but he has the beauty of green grass, wild violets, and mossy logs. As we watch him in the water, with his bright blended colors and gentle ways, once more, with Old Izaak, sit on cowslip banks, hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as the silent silver streams which we see glide so quietly by us." During the ordinary business of the year Diplesion, like most sensible fishes and men, dresses plainly. It is not easy to get time for contemplation when the streams are low and food is scarce. Besides, a plain coat may ward off danger as well as facilitate attack. At all times, however, he may be known by these marks: the fins are all large; the back is covered with zigzag markings, while on the lower part of the sides are eight or nine w-shaped olive spots. These are more or less connected above, and sometimes form a wavy line. The eyes are prominent; the snout is very short and rounded; while the little inferior mouth is puckered up as if for saying "prunes and prisms, prunes and prisms." But when the first bluebirds give warning by their shivering and bodiless notes that spring is coming, then Diplesion puts on his wedding-clothes, and becomes in fact the greensided darter. The dorsal fins become of a bright grass-green, with a scarlet band at the base of each; the broad anal has a tinge of the deepest emerald; while every spot and line upon the side has turned from an undefined olive to a deep rich green, such

as is scarcely found elsewhere in the animal world excepting on the heads of frogs. The same tint shines out on the branching rays of the caudal fin, and may be seen struggling through the white of the belly. The blotches nearest the middle of the back become black, and thickly sprinkled everywhere are little shiny specks of a clear bronzeorange. In the aquarium Diplesion is 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 in a geode.

We never tired of watching the little Johnny, or Tessellated Darter (Boleosoma nigrum Rafinesque). Although our earliest aquarium friend, — and the very first specimen 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 him with the hand, we begin with all the uncertainty that characterized our first attempts, even if we have him in a two-quart pail. We may know him by his short fins, his first dorsal having but nine spines, and by the absence of all color save a soft yellowish brown, which is freckled with darker markings. The dark brown on the sides is arranged in seven or eight w-shaped marks, below which are a few flecks of the same color. Covering the sides of the back are the wavy markings and dark specks which have given the name of the "Tessellated Darter;" but Boleosoma is a braver name, and we even prefer "Boly" for short. In the spring the males have the head jet-black; and

this dark color often extends on the back part of the body, so that the fish looks as if he had been taken by the tail and dipped into a bottle of ink. But with the end of the nuptial season, this color disappears, and the fish regains his normal strawy hue.

The head in Boleosoma resembles that of Diplesion; but the habit of leaning forward over a stone, resting on the front fins, gives a physiognomy even more frog-like. His actions are, however, rather bird-like; for he will strike attitudes like a tufted titmouse, and he flies rather than swims through the water. He will, with much perseverance, push his body between a plant and the side of the aquarium, and balance himself on the slender stem. Crouching cat-like before a snail-shell, he will snap off the horns which the unlucky owner pushes timidly out. But he is often less dainty, and seizing the animal by the head, he dashes the shell against the glass or a stone until he pulls the body out or breaks the shell. Boly, alas! is the "Quaker of our aquarium" only in appearance.

Gayest of all the darters, and indeed the gaudiest of all fresh-water fishes, is the Rainbow Darter (Pæcilichthys cæruleus Storer). This is a little fish, never more than three inches long, and usually about two. Everywhere, throughout the northern parts of the Mississippi Valley, it makes its home in the ripples and shallows of the rivers and in the shady retreats of all the little brooks. The male fish is greenish above, with darker blotches, and its sides are variegated with oblique bands alternately of indigo-blue and deep orange, the orange

often edged with patches of white. The cheeks. are deep blue, the breast deep orange; while the expanded fins are gorgeous in scarlet, indigo, and crimson. The female, as is usually the case when the male of the species is resplendent, is plainly colored, a speckly green, with no trace of blue

or orange.

When the War of the Rebellion broke out, there were some good people who were anxiously looking for some sign or omen, that they might know on which side the "stars in their courses" were fighting. It so happened that in a little brook in Indiana, called Clear Creek, some one caught a rainbow darter. This fish was clothed in a new suit of the red, white, and blue of his native land, in the most unmistakably patriotic fashion. There were some people who had never seen a darter before, and who knew no more of the fishes in their streams than these fishes knew of them, by whom the coming of this little "soldier-fish" into their brooks was hailed as an omen of victory. course, these little fishes had really "always been there." They were there when America was discovered and for a long time before, but the people had not seen them. The warblers lived, you remember, in Spalding's woods at Concord; but Spalding did not know that they were there, and they had no knowledge of Spalding. So with the darters in Spalding's brooks. Still, when the day comes when history shall finally recount all the influences which held Indiana to her place in the Union, shall not, among greater things, this least of little fishes receive its little meed of praise?

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