41 8 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



fishes, and westward it is everywhere the most abundant. 

 Like Lcponiis niegalotis it is subject to very great variations 

 in form, coloration, and general appearance, yet it is usually, 

 of all Sun-fishes, the species most readily recognized. 



This fish, called the Blue Gill, in Michigan, is abundant in 

 all waters from New York to Dakota, and thence southward 

 to Florida and the Rio Grande. It reaches a larger size in 

 the North, and in the vicinity of Lake Michigan it is the most 

 important of the tribe. In large lakes it grows large, but in 

 small streams it adapts its body to what it can find to eat — 

 an arrangement not unknown elsewhere in the class of fishes. 



THE GREEN SUN-FISH — Lcpoiiiis cya He'll US (Rafiuesque). 



Description. — Body oblong, or elongate, the depth usually 

 about 2 i-2-in. length; the head about 3; mouth pretty wide, 

 the maxillary reaching nearly to middle of eye; lower jaw 

 ratlier longest; fins rather small, the dorsal spines very low, 

 the longest scarcely longer than snout; scales ahva^'s small, 

 about 46 in the course of the lateral line; opercular flap short 

 and small, less than eye, broadly margined with pinkish, the 

 black confined to the bony part of the flap. Colors extremely 

 variable, the prevailing shade usually green, with a strong 

 brassy luster on sides, becoming usually yellow below; often 

 nearly all deep green, often with the blue predominating, 

 sometimes in northern specimens nearly black; each scale 

 usually with a sky-blue spot, and more or less of gilt-edging, 

 which gives an appearance of pale lines along the sides; 

 besides the blue spots, some specimens, usually young or 

 half-grown ones, are crossed by vertical bars of a brassy olive, 

 or sometimes almost black color; many adults are further 

 marked by sprinklings of black dots; vertical fins marked with 

 green and blue, the anal almost edged in front with pale or- 

 ange; ventrals usually yellowish; iris red; cheeks with narrow 

 wavy stripes of bright blue; usually a round black spot on last 

 rays of dorsal and anal behind — the latter, and sometimes both, 

 obsolete. A species extremely variable both in form and col- 

 oration, yet easily recognizable at sight. 



This is a small but active and voracious sun-fish that 

 generally makes his [)resence felt \N'henevcr an angle-worm is 

 dropped in his vicinity. It is found in all waters between the 



