172 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



The sunfish Likes quiet waters for nesting. 



THE SUNFISH 



Teacher's Story 



HIS little disc of gay color has won many popular names. 

 It is called pumpkin seed, tobacco box and sunfish 

 because of its shape, and it is also called bream and 

 pondfish. I have always wondered that it was not 

 called chieftain also, for when it raises its dorsal fin 

 with its saw crest of spines, it looks like the head-dress 

 of an Indian chief; and surely no warrior ever had a 

 greater enjoyment in a battle than does this indom- 

 itable little fish. 



The sunfish lives in the eddies of our clear brooks and ponds. It is a 

 near relative to the rock bass and also of the black bass and it has, accord- 

 ing to its size, just as gamey qualities as the latter. I once had a sunfish 

 on my line -which made me think I had caught a bass and I do not know 

 whether I or the mad little pumpkin seed was the most disgusted when I 

 discovered the truth. I threw him back in the water but his fighting 

 spirit was up, and he grabbed my hook again within five minutes, which 

 showed that he had more courage than wisdom ; it would have served him 

 right if I had fried him in a pan, but I never could make up my mind to 

 kill a fish for the sake of one mouthful of food. 



Perhaps of all its names, "pumpkin seed" is the most graphic, for it 

 resembles this seed in the outlines of its body when seen from the side. 

 Looked at from above, it has the shape of a powerful craft with smooth, 



