412 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



than a third; eye large; 8 to 4 1-2-in. head, about equal to the 

 opercular flap; mouth small, the maxillary scarcely reaching 

 to orbit; profile usually forming an angle above eye; fins well 

 developed, the spines of the dorsal rather high; the spines as 

 long as from snout to past pupil; pectoral fins long, reaching 

 to anal ; opercular flap moderate, broad and short, bluntly 

 rounded, black except a broad edge on the lower posterior 

 part, which in life is always bright scarlet and always a strik- 

 ing feature; fin-rays: dorsal X, 10; anal III, 10; lateral line 

 with 36 to 45 scales; coloration very variable, according to the 

 surroundings of the fish; back greenish-olive, usually dark; 

 sides profusely spotted with orange; belly orange-yellow; lower 

 fins orange, the upper olivaceous, with the membranes closely 

 spotted with orange and olive, with clear blue wavy streaks. 

 Length 6 to 8 or to inches. 



The common Sun-fish is found throughout the Great Lake 

 Region, in the Upper Mississippi, eastward to the rivers of 

 Maine, and thence southward as far as Georgia in the streams 

 east of the Alleghanies. Its geographical range, singularly 

 enough, exactly coincides with that of the Yellow Perch, but 

 no other fish whatever shows the same eccentricity of going 

 southward on the east side of the moutains, while avoiding 

 the middle and lower Mississippi. 



As already stated, the Sun-fish is pre-eminently a boy's 

 fish. It is active, handsome and voracious. Any bait small 

 enough for it to swallow, it will take with an energy worthy 

 of a fish ten times its size. 



The following account of its nest-building habits is given 

 by Dr. Holbrook. I suppose that other Sun-fishes share these 

 habits, but no other species has been so carefully observed. 



"This fish prefers still and clear waters. In the spring, the 

 female prepares herself a circular nest, by removing all reeds 

 or other dead aquatic plants from a chosen spot of a foot or 

 more in diameter, so as to leave bare the clean gravel or sand ; 

 this she excavates to the depth of three or four inches, and 

 then deposits her spawn, which she watches with the greatest 

 vigilance; and it is curious to see how carefully she guards 

 this nest against all intruders; in every fish, even those of her 



