PARENTAT. CARE AMOX(; FRESTI-WATER FTSTTES. 



509 



and end of the anal aiv faillu'i- hack than the ('()n-(*si)()n(nn_o- parts oF 

 the dorsal: each has nearly the same nmnher of spines, which regu- 

 larW increase in length backward. 



Fir;. 90. — A Centrachino. The ralico Bass ( I'oiiio.ris spnroidr.t) . 



The common snnfish (Eirpomofis (jihho.Kiif^) may be taken as the 

 best known of the typical species of the famil}', although of course 

 the l)lack basses are the most famous and have been most written 

 al)Out. The habits of the sunfishes and black basses are not verj' 

 different from eacli other. 



THE SUNFISHES AND ESPECIALLY THE COMMON SUNFISH {EuponiOtiS glbhOSUS). 



If we are able to ajiproach near enough, under ordinary condition?: 

 we may watch the sunfishes in all their movements. One will be 

 found suspended in the water some distance above the bottom, with 

 the dorsal and anal sj^ines depressed backward and the soft portions 

 erect and perhaps every once in a while gently undulated; the pec- 

 torals are extended outward, but also slightly undulated, while the 

 ventrals are mostly closed and kept tightly appressed to the belly; 

 the mouth is slightly open, and the bran(;hiostegal membrane barely 

 moves. Another may be seen with all its fins as erect as those repre- 

 sented in the illustration. Some may rest horizontally in the water, 

 others tilted forward and downward, and still others with the snout 

 directed upward." A flirt of the caudal fin and bend of the tail impel 



a The " mnd snnfish " (Acantharchus pomntisi). which is not properly a snnfish. 

 .•icoording to Abhott (1884, p. 369), in an a<]nariuiii " innch of the time assnniefl 

 ii perpendienhir position, head down and tail n|t. in a bnnch of river weeds." 

 and "in every instance" when seen in a creek were in the same " remavlcable 

 position; not. indeed, in every case perpendicnlar. i>nt always closely approach- 

 ing it, and with the head downward" (p. 370). 



