22 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



as well as in those which are useful. To them I will 

 say, if you wish to see something really pretty, make 

 a seine from an old coffee sack or a piece of mosquito 

 netting, and any day in spring drag two or three rip- 

 ples of the branch which flows through the wood's 

 pasture, and ten chances to one you will get some 

 " rainbows." By placing them in a fruit jar three- 

 fourths full of clear, cold water, and renewing the 

 water every few hours, they can be kept for several 

 days; but they can not bear the confinement long, 

 accustomed as they are to the free running stream 

 from which they were taken. 



By taking the rainbow as the type of the darter 

 and studying closely its habits, both in captivity and 

 in the streams, much can be learned about a group 

 which, in the words of Dr. S. A. Forbes, "are the 

 mountaineers among fishes. Forced from the popu- 

 lous and fertile valleys of the river beds and lake bot- 

 toms, they have taken refuge from their enemies in 

 the rocky highlands where the free waters play in 

 ceaseless torrents, and there they have wrested from 

 stubborn nature a meager living. Although dimin- 

 ished in size by their continual struggle with the 

 elements, they have developed an activity and hardi- 

 hood, a vigor of life and a glow of high color almost 

 unknown among the easier livers of the lower lands." 



II. THE LONG-EARED SUNFISH. 



Among the most brightly colored of all the fresh 

 w'ater members of the finny tribe is the long-eared 

 sunfish, Lepomis megalotis (Raf.). When full grown 



