Bean and Weed — Coloration of Fishes. 71 



blue or all brownish or half blue and half brown, etc. Indeed 

 the changes are too numerous to mention. 



The Pigfish (Orthopristis rhn/sopterus) shows very remarkable 

 changes in color and color pattern. There are three perfectly 

 distinct color patterns which appear to be about equally com- 

 mon. One is a perfectly plain light or dark gray without spots 

 or bars of any kind. Another has this same gray ground with 

 several heavy black cross bars, which sometimes are more or 

 less broken up into dark mottlings. A third shows instead of 

 the cross bars a black line from the end of the snout to the 

 base of the dorsal fin and along each side of this fin. Below 

 this is a narrow light stripe with a heavy black band below it. 

 A second dark band extends from the eye straight to the caudal 

 peduncle. The lower edge of this band is just above the upper 

 lip. Between this and the dark band above it is a light stripe 

 about the same width as either of these dark bands. The 

 upper dark band crosses the front of the head about midway 

 between the lower band and the front of the dorsal fin. There 

 are also a few small black lines across the front of the head 

 which make the markings appear much like a bridle. One of 

 these lines passes from the upper edge of the opercle to the 

 upper edge of orbit and then across front of head. Sometimes 

 the two sets of bars fade out except at points where they cross, 

 giving rise to a series of square black blotches on the side of 

 the fish. Any of these color patterns may appear instantane- 

 ously, following any other. Sometimes the change may be 

 likened to the fading of one picture and the appearance of 

 another in a stereopticon . 



Specimens of the Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) in the aqua- 

 rium show mostly a color pattern made up simply of longitudi- 

 nal blue stripes of greater or less intensity on a grayish ground. 

 However, at times black cross bars appear. The appearance 

 and disappearance of these bars may be practically instantane- 

 ous or it may be quite slow. The ground color between the 

 blue lines often becomes a bright shell pink. 



Many of our common fresh-water sunfishes show remarkable 

 changes in their color in life. The Common Sunfish or 



Tobacco Box " (Lepomis gibbosus) does not show these 

 changes so well as some of the other species. The ' Green 

 Sunfish " (Lepomis cyanellus), a widely distributed fish in the 



