48G NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



watrr. In the aquarium, according to Eugene Smitli, the com- 

 mon sunfish by incessant attacks often kills associates of many 

 kinds. It is a very gamy fish, common everj'where and is usually 

 found ill the company of shiners, minnows and killies. In 

 quarry ponds, of the Palisades, says the same author, the fish 

 will thrive and multiply as freely as the goldfish, provided there 

 is water enough throughout the year. 



Genus micropterus Lac^p^de 

 Body oblong, compressed, the back not much elevated; head 

 oblong, conical; mouth very large, oblique, the broad maxillary 

 reaching nearly to or beyond the posterior margin of the eye, 

 its supplemental bone well developed; lower jaw prominent; 

 teeth on jaws, vomer and palatines in broad viiliforra baiids, 

 the inner depressible, usually no teeth on the tongue; preopercle 

 entire; operculum ending in two flat points without cartilagin- 

 ous flap; branchiostegals normally six; gill rakers long and 

 slender; scales rather small, weakly ctenoid; lateral line com- 

 plete, the tubes straight, occupying the anterior half of each 

 scale; dorsal fin divided by a deep notch, the spines low and 

 rather feeble, 10 in number; anal spines three, the anal fin much 

 smaller than the dorsal; pectorals obtusely pointed, the upper 

 rays longest; ventrals close together below the pectorals; caudal 

 fin emarginate; posterior processes of the premaxillaries not 

 extending to the f rentals; frontals posteriorly with a transverse 

 ridge connecting the parietal and supraoccipital crests, which 

 are very strong; vertebrae 16+16 or 17=32 or 33. Size large. 

 Two species, among the most important of American ''game'' 

 fishes. 



241 Micropterus dolomieu Lac^pMe 



Small Mouthed Black Bass 



Micropterus dolomieu Lacei'EDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 325, 1802; Jordan & 

 Gir.iiKUT, r.iill. 16. IT. S. Nat. Mus. 485, 1883; Mather, App. 12th Rept 

 Adirondack Surv. N. Y. 5, 1886; Meek, Ann. N. Y. Ac. Sci. IV, 

 3i:{, 1888; P.FAN, Fishes Penua. 116, color pi. 11, 1893; Evermann & 

 KrxDAi.L, Kept. U. S. F. C. for 1894, 600, 1896; Jordan & Evermann, 

 lUill. 47, IT. S. Nat. Mus. 1011, 1896. pi. CLXII, fifrs. 430. 430a, 1900; 

 I'.ioAN, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 304, 1897; Mkarns, id. X, 320, 

 1S98; Euokne Smith, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. Y. 1897, 35, 1898. 



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