4G2 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICIN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



maxillary scarcely reaching pupil. Teetli in jaws stout, conical, slightly 

 carved, in two or three rows. Head 3; depth 3 J. D. IV, 10; A. Ill, 

 5; B. 5; scales 42 + 19. L. 1 J inches. Smallest of our spinous-rayed 

 fishes, inhabiting sluggish streams and bayous, from South Illinois to 

 Texas and Alabama. 



(Jordan, Bull, x, U. S. Nat. Mus. 50, 1077; Jordan, Man. Vert. ed. 2,248; Jordan, 

 Bull. Ills. Lab. Nat. Hist, ii, 47; Hay. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. iii, 18S0,.5G0.) 



Family LXXXIV.— CENTRAECHID^.* 



{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 pseudobranchise im- 

 l)erfect. Ilead compressed. Mouth terminal, large or small. Teeth 

 in villiform bauds, the outer slightly enlarged, without canines; teeth 

 l^resent on premaxillaries, lower jaw, and vomer, and usually on pala- 

 tines also, sometimes on tongue, pterygoids, and hyoid. Premaxilla- 

 ries protractile; maxillary with a supplemental bone, which, in one 

 genus, is sometimes minute or o'.)solete. Preopercle entire or some- 

 what serrate; opercle ending in two flat points or prolonged 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. Pseudobranchise small, almost glandular, nearly or quite cov- 

 ered by skin. Gill-jnembranes separate, free from the isthmus. Bran- 

 chiostegals G or rarely 7. Gill-rakers variously formed, armed with 

 small teeth; lower pharyngeal bones separate, their teeth conic or 

 sometimes paved. Cheeks and opercles scaly. Body fully scaled, the 

 scales usually not strongly ctenoid, rarely 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-t). Intes- 

 tinal canal short. Pyloric coeca 5-10. Vertebrce 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. Many of the species build nests, which they defend with much 

 courage. All are carnivorous, voracious, and gamy. All are valued as 

 food in direct proportion to the size which they attain. 



* Vfe aro indebted to Mr. Chas. L. McKay for the results of bis studies of this family, 

 iu tbe advance of the publication of a monograph of the grouj). 



