422 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



tinctive name at all, but are compelled to wear the cast-off or 

 made over names of other fishes. 



THE SACRAMENTO RED-EYE — AvcJiopUtcs intcrruptits (Girard). 



Description. — Body oblong-ovate, compressed, the back con- 

 siderably elevated anteriorly, depressed over the ej'e, the 

 snout projecting at an angle. Mouth terminal, very large, 

 the maxillary very broad, extending bej'ond pupil. Eye very 

 large, 4 to 5-in. head. Scales on cheek in about eight series. 

 Preopercle decidedly serrate. Dorsal spines rather low, 

 strong. Pectoral short, barely reaching anal. Color blackish 

 above, sides silvery, with about seven vertical blackish bars, 

 irregular in form and position and more or less interrupted; a 

 black opercular spot; fins nearly plain. Head 2 2-3 ; depth 

 2 1-2. D. XIII, 10; scales about 7 — 51 — 14. L. 12 inches. 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers; abundant; the only fresh- 

 water percoid west of the Rock}^ Mountains. 



This fine fish is the double of the Rock Bass, which it 

 resembles very closely, in size, color and habits. It is found 

 only in the sloughs of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin 

 Rivers, and it is the only fresh-water fish of the Perch or 

 Bass kind which is found west of the Rocky Mountains. It 

 seems to be a lineal descendant of our Rock Bass, and how 

 it came to California is one of the standing puzzles in the 

 geographical distribution of fishes. 



There is in the Sacramento another fish, likewise wrongly 

 called a "Perch," a viviparous "Surf-fish" or Embiotocoid, 

 Hystcrocarpus traski. This species is of little importance 

 as food or as game, but it is very interesting to naturalists 

 from the fact that it brings forth its )^oung alive. It gives 

 birth to some eight or ten young, each about an inch in 

 length, and quite ready at birth to take care of themselves. 



THE ROUND B\ss—Cciit rarc/uis inacroptcnis (Lacepede). 



Description. — Body very short, suborbicular, the snout pro- 

 jecting; back and belly closely compressed; the greatest 

 thickness of the body being through the opercular region; 

 top of head broad and fiattish, the interorbital space being 

 about equal to eye; mouth small, very oblique, the maxillarv 

 scarcely reaching middle of eye; eye very large, about 3-in. 



