Bean and Weed — Coloration of Fishes. /3 



this olive coloration fishes would quickly change to a golden 

 brown with or without dark cross bars or with bars formed of 

 small spots slightly darker than the ground color. One fish 

 which we watched for some time and which, hy its actions, 

 appeared to be a male more or less approaching the breeding 

 condition was a bright yellow color mottled over the whole side 

 with dark orange spots each about the size of a scale. The breast 

 was a clear bright orange. The pectoral fins were a clear lemon 

 yellow. There was hardly a trace of cross bars although at 

 times a few could be seen quite indistinctly. This fish was 

 observed several times and seemed to show no color changes 

 except, on one occasion, a slight tendency of the yellow ground 

 color to appear grayish. 



The Blue Sunfish (Lepomis pallidas) which is known also as 

 Bluegill, Copper Nosed Bream, Blue Bream, Black Sunfish, 

 Roach (Sodus Bay, New York), etc., shows various color pat- 

 terns. Sometimes the fish will be a plain iron color with no 

 markings at all except the black spot on the opercular Hap. At 

 other times it is a plain yellowish green with no markings or it 

 may show either of these colors with faint or dark cross bars, 

 or the light ground color may he almost entirely obscured by 

 heavy dark bars with dark mottlings between them. 



In Eftneacanthus gloriosus, a common sunfish of the vicinity 

 of Washington, color changes may be noted which are very sim- 

 ilar to those of Lepomis cyannellus. The changes from vertical 

 dark and light bars to the coloration of bright specks is practi- 

 cally the same as in the Green Sunfish except that in Enneacanthus 

 the heavy black stripe through the eye never, so far as we know, 

 becomes entirely invisible. 



The War Mouth (Chsenobryttus gulosus) shows little change in 

 color except that the extent of the dark patches varies consid- 

 erably so that the same fish may be grayish mottled with black 

 or nearly all black with a few grayish streaks. Fish caught on 

 hook and line near Washington often show much red or dark 

 orange in the ground color. 



Some of our common fish, which are frequently seen in aqua- 

 riums, as the Gar Pike (Lepidosteus osseus) and Strawberry Bass 

 or Calico Bass (Pomoxis sparoides and Pomoxis annularis) , appar- 

 ently show no changes except an increase or reduction in the 

 intensity of the coloration. 



