486 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



water. Tii the aquarium, according to Eugene Smith, the com- 

 mon sunfish b}' incessant attacks often kills associates of many- 

 kinds. It is a very gamy fish, common everywhere and is usually 

 found in the company of shiners, minnows and killies. la 

 quarry ponds, of the Palisades, says the same author, the fish 

 will thrive and multiply as freely as the goldfish, provided there 

 is water enough throughout the year. 



Genus micropteris Lac^p^de 

 Body oblong, compressed, the back not much elevated; head, 

 oblong, conical; mouth very large, oblique, the broad maxillary 

 reaching nearly to or beyond the posterior margin of the eye, 

 its supplemental bone well developed; lower jaw prominent; 

 teeth on jaws, vomer and palatines in broad villiform bands, 

 the inner depressible, usually no teeth on the tongue; preopercle 

 entire; operculum ending in two flat points without cartilagin- 

 ous flap; branchiostegals normally six; gill rakers long and. 

 slender; scales rather small, weakly ctenoid; lateral line com- 

 plete, the tubes straight, occupying the anterior half of each 

 scale; dorsal fin divided by a deep notch, the spines low and 

 rather feeble, 10 in number; anal spines three, the anal fin much 

 smaller than the dorsal; pectorals obtusely pointed, the upper 

 rays longest; ventrals close together below the pectorals; caudal, 

 fin emarginate; posterior processes of the premaxillaries not 

 extending to the frontals; frontals posteriorly with a transverse 

 ridge connecting the parietal and supraoccipital crests, which 

 are very strong; vertebrae 16+16 or 17=32 or 33. Size large. 

 Two species, among the most important of American '' game " 



fishes. 



241 Micropterus dolomieu Lac^p^de 



Small Mouthed Black Bass 



Micropterus doloniieu Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 325, 1802; Jordan & 

 Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 485, 1883; Mather, App. 12th Rept 

 Adirondack Surv. N. Y. 5, 1886; Meek, Ann. N. Y. Ac. Sci. IV, 

 313, 1888; Bean, Fislies Penna. 116, color pi. 11, 1893; Evermann & 

 Kendall, Rept. U. S. F. C. for 1894, 600, 1896; Jordan & Evermann, 

 Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. AIus. 1011, 1896, pi. CLXII, figrs. 430. 430fl, 1900; 

 Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 364, 1897; Mearns, id. X, 320, 

 1898; Eugene Smith, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. Y. 1897, 35, 1898. 



