stones in which the eggs of the mother-fish are laid and watched over
with jealous care by both parents until in time there issue forth sons
destined some day to wear a coat of many colors, and "darters" to be
attracted by those coats, as was their mother by the one their father
wore.

Although so abundant and so brilliant in the springtime, the rainbow
darter is known to few but naturalists. The fishes in which the
average country boy is interested are the larger ones--such as the
goggle-eye, the sucker, chub, and sunfish--those which, when caught,
will fill up the string and tickle the palate.

But there are, let us hope, among our farmers' sons and daughters,
some who are learning to take an interest in the objects of nature
which are beautiful, as well as in those which are useful. To them I
will say, if you wish to see something really pretty, make a seine
from an old coffee sack or a piece of mosquito netting, and any day in
spring drag two or three ripples of the branch which flows through the
wood's pasture, and ten chances to one you will get some "rainbows."
By placing them in a fruit jar three-fourths full of clear, cold
water, and renewing the water every few hours, they can be kept for
several days; but they cannot bear the confinement long, accustomed as
they are to the free running stream from which they were taken.

By taking the rainbow as the type of the darter and studying closely
its habits, both in captivity and in the streams, much can be learned
about a group which, in the words of Dr. S. A. Forbes, "are the
mountaineers among fishes. Forced from the populous and fertile
valleys of the river beds and lake bottoms, they have taken refuge
from their enemies in the rocky highlands where the free waters play
in ceaseless torrents, and there they have wrested from stubborn
nature a meagre living. Although diminished in size by their
continual struggle with the elements, they have developed an activity
and hardihood, a vigor of life and a glow of high color almost unknown
among the easier livers of the lower lands."

II.--THE LONG-EARED SUNFISH.

Among the most brightly colored of all the fresh-water members of the
finny tribe is the long-eared sunfish. When full grown its length is
about eight inches and the breadth one-half as much. The color is then
a brilliant blue and orange, the former predominating above; the
orange on the sides in spots, the blue in wavy, vertical streaks. The
cheeks a