FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



pressed and broad round shape of the fish). This is 

 the fish delighting boyhood, and is indiscriminately- 

 called pumpkin-seed, bream, tobacco-box, kiver, and 

 sunny. It may be distinguished from its fellows 

 by the red spot on the flap of the posterior gill- 

 cover, a mark which distinguishes this species from 

 all others of the family. Its general color is green- 

 ish olive above, shaded with a bluish tone ; the 

 sides are spotted and blotched with orange, and on 

 the cheeks are blue wavy lines on a groundwork 

 of orange, — a brilliant fish, perfect and shining 

 as a coin fresh from the mint. W. C. Harris, in 

 his " Game Fishes of Pennsylvania," remarks : 



" I confess to a fondness for catching the 

 4 pumpkin-seed ' upon the lightest of fly rods, with 

 leader and line approaching spider-web consistency. 

 I have caught them, averaging half a pound in 

 weight, by the dozen, with black and brown 

 hackles ; and when they reach that size, they are so 

 sprightly in their play, when fastened on delicate 

 trout tackle, that we cannot deny them a niche in 

 the gallery of game fishes." 



Another sunfish, known as the yellow belly or 

 redbreast, is very abundant in New England streams, 

 in fact, in all fluvial waters east of the Alleghany 

 Mountains and as far south as Louisiana. It is 

 classified technically as Lepomis auritus, the generic 

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