480 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and belly and a dusky blotch on tbe posterior part of the soft 

 dorsal fin. 



Mearns found this sunfisb abundant in the Hudson and in 

 Poplopen's creek, a tributary of the Hudson; he took it also 

 in Highland lake. Eugene Smith reported it to be very com- 

 mon in the upper Passaic river, in the Great swamp and in tbe 

 Bronx river. 



The long-eared sunfish averages about 8 inches when adult 

 and weighs about 1 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 num- 

 bers on the hook and is an excellent food fish. It takes any 

 kind 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 

 Foplopen's creek when angling for brook trout. 



239 lepomis pallidus (Mitchill) 



Bltiegill; Bhie Sunfish 



Labrus pallidus Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 407, 1815, near 

 New York. 



Ponwtis incisor Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. VII, 466, 1831, 

 New Orleans; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 33, 1842 (extralimital). 



Pomotis gihbosus Cuvier & Valenciennes, op. cit. VII, 467, 1831, Charles- 

 ton, S. C. 



Pomotis speciosus Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 263, 1859. 



Lepomis liaUidits Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 479, 1S83; 

 Meek, Ann. N. Y. Ac. Sci. IV, 313, 1888; Bean, Fishes Penna. 112, pi. 

 31, fig. 62, 1893; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1005, 

 1896, pi. CLX, fig. 427, 1900. 



The blue sunfish has a deep, elliptic body, its greatest depth 

 at the ventrals one half of the total length without the caudal; 

 the thickness equals about one third of the depth. The caudal 

 peduncle is short and deep, its least hight nearly one half the 

 length of head. The head is one third of the total length with- 



