SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



233 



The mud bass, ^hich lives in sluggish fresh waters along the coast from New 

 York to South Carolina, is known from the Neuse near Raleigh and at Kinston; 

 from the Tar near Rocky Mount; and from Lake Ellis in Craven County. It 

 doubtless exists in various other state waters in which no collections have been 

 made. Its length is about 6 inches, and its food value is slight. It lives mostly 

 in muddy water, and is said to be nocturnal in its habits. 



Genus AMBLOPLITES Rafinesque. Rock Basses. 



Body oblong, compressed, back somewhat elevated; mouth large, a large 

 supplemental maxillary; teeth in bands or patches on jaws, tongue, vomer, and 

 pterygoids; preopercular angle serrate; gill-rakers long, strong, and toothed; 

 scales large, lateral line complete; dorsal fin longer than anal, with 10 or 11 low 

 spines. One species. (Amhloplites, blunt armature.) 



201. AMBLOPLITES RUPESTRIS (Rafinesque). 

 Rock Bass; Red-eye. 



Bodianus rupestns Rafinesque, American Monthly Magazine, 1817, 120; lakes of New York, Vermont, and 



Canada. 

 Ambloplites rupesiris, Cope, 18706, 451; French Broad Biver and head of Cumberland. Jordan, 18896, 153; 



Swannanoa River near Asheville and Spring Creek at Hot Springs. Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 989, 



pi. clvi, fig. 419. 



Fig. 102. Rock Bass. Ambloplites rupestris. 



Diagnosis. — Depth .4 to .5 total length; head large, contained 2.75 times in length; mouth 

 large, maxillary reaching to posterior edge of pupil; eye large, about equal to snout, contained 

 3.5 times in head; gill rakers on lower arm of first arch 7 to 10; scales in lateral series 40, in 

 transverse series 17, scales on cheeks in 6 to 8 rows; dorsal rays x,10 or xi,10, spines low, the 

 longest less than .5 length of head; anal rays v,10 to viii,10; caudal concave, with roimded ends. 

 Color: pale green, with dark mottlings and a dark spot on each scale; a dark spot on upper 

 part of opercle; fins dark mottled, {rupestris. inhabiting rocks.) 



From Vermont this species ranges through the Great Lakes to Manitoba, 

 thence to the lower Mississippi valley, being abundant in the Great Lakes and 

 the Mississippi basin. In North Carolina the rock bass is naturally confined to 



