390 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



the color is olivaceous ; the belly, especially in breeding males, orange. The scales 

 on the sides have reddish spots on a bluish ground. Dorsal, anal and caudal usually 

 yellowish. The stripes on the head are bluish. 



The Long-eared Sunfish averages about 8 inches when adult and weighs about i 

 pound. In the south the size and number of individuals are greatly increased. This 

 fish feeds on worms, insect larvae, crustaceans, mollusks and small fishes. In the 

 Susquehanna this is one of the most common of the Sunfishes; in the Delaware also 

 it is abundant, and reaches a large size. Though not important commercially, it is 

 taken in large numbers on the hook and is an e.xcellent food fish. It takes any kind 



LONG-EARED SUNFISH. 



of live bait very readily and furnishes good sport also with the artificial fly. In the 

 Hudson Highlands region, according to Mearns, it is commonly sold in the markets; 

 fishermen take it in fykes, and by angling, using dough, grasshoppers and angle- 

 worms for bait. He has caught it in the most rapid parts of Poplopen's Creek when 

 angling for Brook Trout. 



103. Blue-gill; Blue Sunfish (Lr/'ou/is /^tr//n//is MhchiW). 



Labrus pallidus Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y., I, 407, 1S15, near New York. 



Pomotis incisor Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., VII, 466, 1831, New Orleans ; 

 DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 33, 1842 (e.xtra limital). 



Lcpomis pallidus Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., 479, 1883 ; Meek, Ann. 

 N. Y. Ac. Sci., IV, 313, 1888 ; Bean, Fishes Penna., 112, pi. 31, fig. 62, 1893 ; Jor- 

 dan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1005, 1896, j)!. CLX, fig. 427, 1900. 



The propriety of using Mitchill's name pallidus for the Blue Sunfish is extremely 

 doubtful. His description cm be much more readily referred to a species of 



