113 

 POMOTIS. 



P. aureus. 



Common Pond-Fish, or Freshwater Sm-Fish. 



Body oval, compressed, convex above and below, but 

 straigliter and thicker at the belly. Head large, broad, 

 smooth between the eyes and snout, which is full and rounded. 

 Eyes large; mouth rather small, and very protractile. Head 

 dusky above, with pale-blue waving lines running from the 

 snout to the eye; sides of face also marked with five or six 

 bands of similar color; appendix black, with a bright scarlet 

 blotch behind. Body olive-brown above, marked with irregu- 

 lar reddish-brown spots; sides and belly yellow, more or less 

 clouded, and with numerous brazen spots below the lateral 

 line. Fins more or less tinged with yellowish-brown. — 

 Length, 6 to 8 inches. 



Fin-rays:— D. 10. 11; P. 13; V. 1. 5; A. 3. 10; C. 17. 



L. aureus, Mitchill. 



Pomotis vulgaris, Cuv. & Val. Ill, p. 91, pi. 49; Kichards, 

 Faun. Bor. Amer. p. 24, pi. 76; Kirtland in Bost. Journ. 

 Ill, p. 470. pi. 28, fig. 2; DeKay, New York Fauna, Fish., 

 p. 31, pi. 51, fig. 16G; Holbr. Ichth. S. Car. p. 8, pi. l.fig. 

 2. 



Lepomis aureus, Cope. Atlas of Md. Zool. 



In the region adjacent to Baltimore they prefer the brackish 

 water, and are not found in the lower part of Chesapeake 

 Bay. 



It is considered by many a very sweet fish. 



It prepares a place for depositing its spawn, usually in the 

 high Eel-grass, or among the Fotamogetons, where the bot- 

 tom is sandy or of clay, sweeping it with the tail and excava- 

 ting a shallow basin of from 1 to 2 feet in diameter, often 

 selecting a spot, from which a small stick projects, to which 

 it attaches its eggs. The mother-fish guards the eggs with 

 great assiduity, defending them from all intruders, and re- 

 jnaining near until they are hatched. 



Acad. Coll. S. I. 



LEPOMIS, Cope. 



L. aurilus. 



Black-Eared Pond-Fish. 



Form a little longer, oval, compressed. Of a general rusty 

 brown, in some specimens golden brown, strongly marked 

 10 



