358 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the simfish shine with all sorts of scarlet, blue, green, purple, 

 and golden colors. There is a black spot on his head which looks like 

 an ear, and sometimes grows out in a long black flap, which makes 

 the imitation still closer. There are many species of the sunfish, 

 and there may be a half dozen of them in the same brook, but that 

 makes no difference ; for our purposes they are all as one. They lie 

 poised in the water, with all fins spread, strutting like turkey-cocks, 

 snapping at worms and little crustaceans and insects whose only 

 business in the brook is that the fishes may eat them. When the 

 time comes, the sunfish makes its nest in the fine gravel, building it 

 with some care — for a fish. When the female has laid her eggs the 

 male stands guard till the eggs are hatched. His sharp teeth and 

 snappish ways, and the bigness of his appearance when the fins are 

 all displayed, keep the little fishes away. Sometimes, in his zeal, he 

 snaps at a hook baited with a worm. He then makes a fierce fight, 

 and the boy who holds the rod is sure that he has a real fish this 

 time. But when the sunfish is out of the water, strung on a willow 

 rod, and dried in the sun, the boy sees that a very little :^h can 

 make a good deal of a fuss. 



When the sunfish goes, then the catfish will follow — " a reckless, 

 bullying set of rangers, with ever a lance at rest." The catfish 

 belongs to an ancient type not yet fully made into a fish, and hence 

 those whose paired fins are all properly fastened to the head, as 

 his are not, hold him in well-merited scorn. He has no scales and 

 no bright colors. His fins are small, and his head and mouth are 

 large. Around his mouth are eight long " smellers," fleshy feelers, 

 that he pushes out as he crawls along the bottom in search of any- 

 thing that he may eat. As he may eat anything, he always finds 

 it. His appetite is as impartial as that of a goat. Anything from 

 a dead lamprey or a bunch of sunfish eggs to a piece of tomato can 

 is grateful to him. In each of the fins which represent his arms 

 is a long, sharp bone with a slimy surface and a serrated edge. These 

 are fastened by a ball-and-socket joint, and whenever the fish is 

 alarmed the bone is whirled over and set in place; then it sticks out 

 stiffly on each side. There is another such bone in the fin on the 

 back, and when all of these are set there is no fish that can swallow 

 him. When he takes the hook, which he surely will do if there 

 is any hook to be taken, he will swallow it greedily. As he is drawn 

 out of the water he sets his three spines, and laughs to himself as 

 the boy pricks his fingers trying to get the hook from his stomach. 

 This the boy is sure to do, and because the boy of the Mississippi 

 Valley is always fishing for catfish is the reason why his fingers are 

 always sore. The catfish is careless of the present, and sure of the 

 future. After he is strung on a birch branch and dried in the sun 



