EUPOMOTIS — PUMPKINSEED SUNFISH 361 



stout, their upper surfaces bluntly rounded or paved; operculum quite firm 

 behind, the bony portion distinct from a broad paler fleshy margin; gill- 

 rakers short and soft, but little better developed than in L. megalotis. Dorsal 

 X, 11 or 12; the spines rather high, the highest 2 to 2.4 in head, about as long 

 as snout and eye. Anal III, 10 or 11; pectorals rather long, 1 to 1.1 in head; 

 ventrals exceeding vent, usually reaching to or a little past first anal spine. 

 Scales 5, 35-40, 13 or 14; 4 or 5 rows on cheek. 



This very abundant species of extreme northern IlHnois, 

 especiall}^ common in the upland lakes of Lake and McHenry 

 counties, is scarcely known south of the center of the state, 

 having occurred, indeed, but twice in all our collections below 

 the latitude of Springfield — once in Clear Lake, across the Ohio 

 from Cairo, and once in Drew pond, near Carmi, on the Little 

 Wabash River. It is essentially a pond species, and is next 

 most abundant in the smaller rivers, our ratios being 2.16 for 

 glacial lakes, 1.24 for lowland lakes, and 1.06 for rivers of the 

 second class. We have taken it only occasionally in the larger 

 rivers and in creeks, its absence in the latter in this state being 

 probably due to its preference for clear streams, in which the 

 greater part of our area is notably deficient. Its local distribu- 

 tion brings it into frequent company with the warmouth (coeffi- 

 cient of association, 3.72), notwithstanding the fact that the 

 pumpkinseed is much the most abundant northward in this state 

 and the warmouth decidedly so southward. Competition is 

 evaded, however, by their widely different food and feeding 

 structures. The pumpkinseed is the best fitted of all our sun- 

 fishes to crush and devour mollusks, and we found these making 

 nearly half the food of nine specimens examined by us. Fishes 

 were entirely wanting, insects amounted only to about a fifth, 

 and medum-sized crustaceans (Allorchestes and Asellus) were 

 represented by another fifth. 



Its general range is illustrated by its Illinois distribution, 

 except that it extends down the Atlantic coast, at least as far as 

 the Carolinas. It has, indeed, been attributed to Florida since 

 the days of Holbrook (1855), and Goode reports it as common in 

 all the fresh waters of that state, but we have failed to find any 

 specific account of its capture there or any mention of a precise 

 locality from which it has been taken. Northward it occurs in 

 Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, and in Lakes Huron, Erie, 

 Ontario, and Champlain. In the Mississippi Valley it is found 

 only in the northern portion, abundant as far south as northern 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and the Osage River in Kansas. 

 Below extreme northern Illinois it is found mainly in lakes and 



