Fam. XV. Mugilid^e. Fam. XVI. Centrarchid,e. 189 



eluded; upper lip thick, slipping beneath the snout; lower lip very- 

 thick, its anterior edge forming a sharp-edged fold; outline of lip very 

 obtuse; no teeth in the palatines; nostrils roundish, close together, in 

 front of the small round eye ; eye nearer the angle of the mouth than 

 level of top of head; no adipose eyelid ; all of the fins, including spinous 

 dorsal, covered with small scales; gill membranes broadly united, free 

 from the isthmus; caudal forked. 



Color dull olivaceous above, without distinct markings, paler 

 below. Length about 2 feet. 



Family XVI. Centrarcliidse. 



The Sunfishes. 



Body more or less shortened, compressed; head compressed; mouth 

 terminal, large or small; teeth in villiform bands, the outer slightly 

 enlarged; no canines; teeth present on premaxillaries, lower jaw and 

 vomer, usually on palatines, also sometimes on tongue, pterygoids and 

 hyoid ; premaxillaries protractile ; preopercle entire or slightly serrate ; 

 opercle ending in two flat points or prolonged in a black flap at its 

 angle; gill membranes separate, free from the isthmus; cheeks and 

 opercles scaly ; ventral fin with one spine and 5 soft rays ; dorsal spines 

 6 to 13; anal spines 3 to 9; vertebrae 28 to 35. Fresh-water fishes of 

 North America. All are voracious and gamy and are good food 

 fishes. A few species are found in northern Mexico, the most south- 

 ern range for the family. 



KEY TO THE GENERA* OF CENTRARCHID^E. 



a. Body comparatively short and deep, the depth page 



usually more than f of the length; dorsal fin 



not deeply emarginate. 



b. Lower pharyngeals narrow, the width in the 



length of toothed portion about 3 in adults; 



lateral margin straight or slightly inbent from 



tip of posterior spur to anterior extremity of 



bone; teeth on lower pharyngeals long and 



slender and more or less acuminate ; no red on 



margin of opercular flap » Lepidopomus 190 



bb. Lower pharyngeals broad, the width in the 

 length of toothed portion about 2 in adults; 

 outer margin a double curve, moderately in- 



*For an account of the genera Lepidopomus and Eupomotis, see R. E. 

 Richardson in Bull. 111. Lab. of Nat. Hist., vol. vn, article ill, pages 27 to 35. 

 The characterization of these two genera and the keys relating to them and 

 their species are largely taken from that paper. 



