4G2 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERIC\N ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 
maxillary scarcely reaching pupil. Teeth in jaws stout, conical, slightly 
curved, in two or three rows. Head 3; depth 3i. D. IV, 10; A. Ill, 
5; B. 5; scales 12 + 19. L. lA inches. Smallest of our spinous-rayed 
(ishes, inhabiting sluggish streams and bayous, from South Illinois to 
Texas and Alabama. 
(Jordan, Bull, x, U. S. Nat. Mns. 50, 1877; Jordan, Man. Vert. ed. 2,248; Jordan, 
Ball. Ills. Lab. Nat. Hist, ii, 47; Hay. Rroc. U. S. Nat. Mus. iii, 1880, .500.) 
Family LXXXIV.— CENTRARCHID^.* 
{The Sun-Jishes.) 
Percoid fishes with the body more or less shortened and compressed; 
the regions above and below the axis of the body nearly equally devel- 
oped, and corresponding to each other, and the pseudobrauchige im- 
perfect. Head compressed. Mouth terminal, large or small. Teeth 
in villiform bauds, the outer slightly enlarged, without canines; teeth 
present on premaxillaries, lower jaw, and vomer, and usually on pala- 
tines also, sometimes on tongue, pterygoids, and hyoid. Preraaxilla- 
ries protractile; maxillary with a supplemental bone, which, in one 
genus, is sometimes minute or o'lcolete. Preopercle entire or some- 
what serrate; opercle ending in two flat jicints or prohmged in a black 
flap at the angle. Preorbital short and deep ; first suborbital narrow, 
the maxillary not slipping under its edge. Gills 4, a slit behind the 
fourth. Pseudobrauchige small, almost glandular, nearly or quite cov- 
ered by skin. Gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus. Bran- 
chiostegals G or rarely 7. Gill-rakers variously formed, armed Avith 
small teeth; lower pharyngeal bones separate, their feeth conic or 
sometimes paved. Cheeks and opercles scaly. Body fully scaled, the 
scales usually not strongly ctenoid, rareR’ cycloid. Lateral line present, 
usually complete. Dorsal fins confluent, the spines G-13 in number 
(usually 10), depressible in a shallow groove; anal spines 3-9. Intes- 
tinal canal short. Pyloric coeca 5-10. V^ertebrae about 30. Coloration 
usually brilliant, chiefly greenish. Sexes similar; changes with age 
often great. Fresh- water fishes of North America; genera 10; species 
about 25, forming one of the most characteristic features of our fish 
fauna. IMany of the species build nests, which they defend with much 
courage. All are carnivorous, voracious, and gamy. All arc valued as 
food in direct proportion to the size which they attain. 
* tVe arc indebted to Jlr. Cbas. L. ^JcKay for the results of bis studies of this family, 
iu the adv'anco of the publication of a monograph of the groux). 
