Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 393 



This fish is not well-known to many of the anglers who come 

 to Lake Maxinkuckee. Only those who wet a line occasionally in 

 Lost Lake or who fish through the ice there are apt to know much 

 about it. Knowledge of it is therefore practically limited to the 

 local fishermen who call it "Indian Fish" or "Mud Bass". 



Its game qualities are not unlike those of the rock bass. It is 

 most easily taken with a live minnow and it bites with considerable 

 energy. It fights vigorously, after the manner of the rock bass. 



As a food-fish the Warmouth is inferior even to the rock bass, 

 though when caught in the winter its flesh is firm and sweet and 

 entirely devoid of the flavor of mud which it may possess in sum- 

 mer. If it could be kept in clear, cold water its flesh would doubt- 

 less lose all its objectionable qualities. 



The Warmouth, with its rich coppery color, is easily distin- 

 guished from the other fishes of the lake. It resembles the rock 

 bass more than any other fish of the lake, and can be distinguished 

 by the following description: 



Head 2 to 2f ; depth 2 to 2 ; eye 4 to 4 ; snout 4 to 41 ; D. X, 

 9 or 10 ; A. Ill, 8 or 9 ; scales 6-40 to 46-11 or 12, about 40 pores, and 

 6 to 8 rows on cheek; gillrakers 8 or 9 besides rudiments. Body 

 shaped very much as in the rock bass; head and mouth large, 

 maxillary reaching posterior edge of orbit ; opercular spot about as 

 large as eye; dorsal spines low, the longest equal to distance from 

 tip of snout to middle of eye ; pectoral not reaching anal fin ; ven- 

 trals reaching anus. 



Color, dark olive-green, or sometimes rich brick-red and brassy, 

 clouded with darker, usually with red, blue and brassy; a dusky 

 spot on each scale; ventral fins mottled with dusky; a faint spot 

 on last rays of dorsal bordered by paler; 3 oblique dusky or red- 

 dish bars radiating from eye; belly yellowish or brassy. Length 

 8 to 10 inches. 



46. BLUE-SPOTTED SUNFISH; GREEN SUNFISH 



APOMOTIS CYANELLUS (Rafinesque) 



(Plate 24) 



This beautiful little sunfish is found wholly west of the Alle- 

 ghenies and from the Great Lakes to Mexico; it is usually abund- 

 ant in all suitable waters from central Ohio and Indiana to the 

 Rio Grande. It is not often found in lakes or large streams but 

 in the smaller streams, brooks and ponds it is an abundant and 

 well-known little fish. 



It is very rare in Lake Maxinkuckee, and the statement by 



