THE TRUE FISHES. 





The black bass of fresh water, of which we have two species,— 

 and small-mouthed, — are among the gamiest of fishes, and some ai 

 go fairly crazy over them. Their flesh is equal to thai of a I 

 their pluck is far superior. 



The pumpkin-seeds, or sun-fishes, which bite so freely, and come 

 hard making the boy angler think he has caught a k ten-pounder,' m 

 be mentioned. They are mostly brilliantly colored Eorms, bu1 their I" 

 only come out when, drawn from the water, they begin to die. Then 

 play of colors is magnificent, and the far-famed dolphin can hardly Biirpasi 

 the display. The pumpkin-seeds are all much alike in shape, and d bin 

 very little value for food or 

 anything else, except as they 

 afford sport for boys. 



Quite a different fish is a 

 small species living in the 

 valley of the Jordan, which, 

 like some of its relatives, has 

 curious reproductive habits. 

 The female deposits the eggs 

 in a little hollow in the 

 bottom of the stream, and 

 then the male takes them into 



his mouth, and keeps them there until after they hatch. •■ 1 he lit 

 rapidly increase in size, and appear to be much incommoded in 

 narrow prison. They remain in great numbers, pressed one against 

 another, like the grains of a ripe pomegranate. The mouth oi the fath. 

 nurse now becomes so distended by his progeny that Ins jaws cannol 

 The cheeks are swollen, and the animal presents the strangesl appea 

 ance." Some of the young remain until they are lour inches long. 



Most of the hundred species of parrot-fishes (Scams) live m the t,.. pica! 

 seas, where they browse on the coral forests, and some are ^^™ 

 an apparatus by which they can hold themselves in position m 

 strongest breakers. One species living in the eastern seas n, , ; 

 prepared with the greatest care, since the contents oi the ff»*£^ 

 allowed to escape, will poison the flesh. Mr Forbes, speaking • 



found in the Keeling Islands, says: "Several fata «W^ 

 the settlement, especially among children who almost u ■■ 

 partaking of 'the flesh were seized with giddiness and stup 

 death, with a dropsical state of the body, within wo « 

 effect of the application of the bile externa^ proved ,1> 

 A woman, while cleaning such a fish b 3 the snoi 



Fig. 315. — Pumpkin--*" I oi bream. 





