LAMPREYS AND FISHES 



back selects the nest site, bites off the plant stems, smears 

 them over with his mucous cement, smooths the walls by re- 

 peatedly pushing his head and body against them and finally 

 swims outside for a mate and drives her into the finished nest. 

 She stays inside the nest a little time, laying the eggs, and he 

 keeps guard, swimming round and round it. She swims out 

 as soon as she has laid the eggs, and he immediately enters 

 the nest to pour the sperm cells over them. This performance 

 may be repeated several times in quick succession by the same 

 male and different females. 



Sticklebacks can be kept in a balanced aquarium and if they 

 are supplied with proper material the males of breeding pairs 

 will build their nests just as in the open. 



Size. — Length up to 2 and ^ inches. 



Distribution. — New York to Kansas and northward; com- 

 mon. 



Sunfishes and Bass — Centrachidce 



Sunfish, "pumpkin seed,-' Eupomotis gibbosus. — The sun- 

 fishes and their relatives, the rock bass and the black bass, 

 are all food fishes, beautiful and gamey, too. Probably best 

 known of all of them is the common sunfish or pimipkin seed, 

 of less economic importance because of its small size, but 

 greatly treasured as countless strings of "pumpkin seeds'* 

 could testify. 



"Pumpkin seeds" are shaped like their namesakes. When 

 they are seen from above or in the pond bank shadows they 

 are drab olive colored, but as soon as they move into the sun- 

 shine their sides are rich iridescent blue and green flecked 

 with orange and dimly barred with olive. Near the edge of 

 the gill cover is one bright scarlet spot (PI. XVIII). The males 

 are brighter colored than the females and they have black 

 ventral fins while those of the females are yellowish. In the 

 males the dorsal and caudal fins are more brilliant blue. 



Sunfish nests are basin-like clearings on the pond bottom 



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