FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



and coppery red on the belly ; the young fish, 

 however, are more brilliant in coloration, being sil- 

 very, with chain-like undulating transverse green- 

 ish bars on the body, and having none of the black 

 blotches on the last rays of the dorsal and anal 

 fins which always exist on those of the adult fish. 

 The specific name indicates its lack of brilliant 

 coloring, being from the Latin, palladus, " pale.*' 



In the sunfish family is included one of the 

 most important species of game fish ; in fact, by 

 many anglers, it is considered the peer of " any 

 fin that flirts." They are the black basses (Mi- 

 cropterus, "small fin"), of which only two species 

 exist, the small-mouthed and the large-mouthed, 

 names that differentiate at once the two forms 

 on sight. Extend the jaws of a five-pound 

 large-mouthed, and the throat capacity will be 

 found sufficiently large to engulf a new-born 

 baby. Held fast on a tensile line, and as he 

 is reeled in, his enormous gullet will take in 

 enough water to quench his vitality, and he will 

 come a drowned fish to the net. Not so, how- 

 ever, with his small-mouthed kinsman, whose 

 acrobatic fight upon the rod is only equalled by 

 the rainbow trout and the ouananiche of similar 

 weight. So great is his reputation as a comba- 

 tant, that anglers, here and there, assert that, as a 

 1 06 



