If you attempt to catch him, or your shadow suddenly frightens him, with a sweep of his broad pectoral or breast fins, he moves quicker than a flash a few feet farther up the stream, and then as suddenly comes to a stop, and resumes his quiet, “thoughtful” attitude.  If you persist in your attempt to capture him, he will dart under a small stone or submerged leaf, where, like the foolish ostrich which when pursued hides her head under her wing, no longer seeing you, he thinks himself secure.

[Illustration:  RAINBOW DARTER.]

On account of the shape of his body, as well as on account of his rapid movements, he has received the surname “darter.”  Belonging to the group which bears this surname, there are, in the eastern half of the United States, about forty-seven species or kinds, the largest of which, when full grown, measures only about six inches in length, while the smallest species never reaches a length of more than an inch and a half.  They all have the same habits, and at least twenty-nine kinds of them are found in Indiana; but the one of which I am writing is much the more common.  He is from two to two and a half inches in length, and, like the other members of his family, has two fins on his back; “dorsal” fins they are called by naturalists, the front one of which contains ten short spines.  During eight months of the year, the males and females dress alike in a suit of brownish olive which is striped on the sides with ten or twelve narrow, black cross-bars, and more or less blotched on the back with darker spots.  But on the first warm days of spring, when the breezes blow up from the gulf, awakening the gypsy in our blood, the little male fish feels, too, their influence, and in him there arises an irresistible desire to “a-courting go.”  Like most other beings of his sex, he thinks his every-day suit too plain for the important business before him.  It will, in his opinion, ne’er catch the eye of his lady love.  So he dons one of gaudy colors and from it takes his name,—­the rainbow darter,—­for in it he is best known, as it not only attracts the attention of his chosen one, but often also that of the wandering naturalist who happens along the stream.

The blackish bars of other seasons are changed to indigo blue, while the space between them assumes a hue of the brightest orange.  The fins are broadly edged with blue and have the bases orange, or orange and scarlet, while the cheeks assume the blue and the breast becomes an orange.  Clad in this suit he ventures forth on his mission, and if successful, as he almost always is, the two construct a nest of tiny 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.