THE SHORT SUNFISH. 117 



none of those complications that are met with in many fishes. 

 All these thino-s beino; considered it must be concluded that the 

 food of the Sunfish consists most probably not of Fuci, as Mr. 

 Couch thinks, but of naked or thin shelled mollusks, small, ten- 

 der Crustacea, or the spawn of these and of fishes ; indeed, I find 

 that Donovan states that fragments of testacea and small crabs 

 have been found in the stomach. This sort of food would easily 

 be found among the fissures of rocks at the bottom of the sea of 

 which the Sunfish is most probably a denizen. The alimentary 

 canal of our specimen contained merely a quantity of uniform 

 creamy looking fluid and mucus. 



Two Entozoa, colourless, subpellucid, in form like elongated 

 hydatids or cysts, about 1^ inch long, were found among the 

 folds of the packet of intestines, also in the branchial chamber 

 attached to the gill rays were detected, as is not uncommonly the 

 case, two or three specimens of the parasite Entomostracon, 

 Cecrops Latreilleii. 



Urinary and Reproductive Organs ; the Kidneys^ six inches 

 long, occupy the usual position, and are somewhat enlarged at 

 both ends ; the ureters, coming out of their lower surfaces at 

 about 1^ inch from the posterior end and running backwards 

 converge to the median line, and unite into one tube which 

 enters the bladder at the termination of the upper ^ of its pos- 

 terior surface. 



The bladder is elliptical, and about the size of a hen's Qgg, it 

 tapers below to a short urethra w^hich opens externally, behind, 

 and distinct from, the anus. There are no suprarenal glands. 

 The reproductive organs in this specimen are not in a state of 

 activity, they are pale and shrunken, but consist of a pair of 

 small tubes, distinct above, and tapering to points about the 

 middle of the bladder, united below, where they open as one into 

 the urethra just within its external orifice. They lie as usual 

 between the intestine and the urinary organs. 



The Heart is small, as is its venous sinus ; two oblique semi- 

 lunar valves lie between this and the auricle. The auricle is 

 large, its inner surface shows slender, but pretty strong reticula- 

 tions of fleshy columns. Four semilunar valves, of nearly equal 



