380 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



if the nests are comparatively deep, " It will be a dry sum- 

 mer," and vice versa. This is based on the supposition 

 that in dry summers the evaporation will exceed the 

 rain-fall, and that the fish place their nests in deep water 

 to prevent them from being left high and dry. The ab- 

 surdity of this is apparent. The nests are occupied but 

 for a portion of one month, and what the summer may 

 be can in no wise affect them ; but of this the village 

 sages never think. The truth is, the same spots are used 

 year after year, whether the water be high or low. 



In those of our shallow, sluggish waters which have 

 an indefinitely deep, muddy bottom, and harbor a rank 

 growth of aquatic vegetation, the handsome, silvery, 

 black-banded sunfish is a common species. In such lo- 

 calities, where often the weeds grow so luxuriantly that a 

 scoop-net can not be drawn, I have found that hundreds 

 of these fishes were passing what I think must be a most 

 monotonous existence. In some places, locomotion must 

 be rather a scramble among the water-weeds than a com- 

 fortable swim. Still, these spots have their advantages ; 

 for the stems of the plants harbor myriads of minute 

 forms of life, and these constitute a never-failing supply of 

 food for the fishes, as may be proved by an examination 

 of the contents of their stomachs, and by a study of their 

 habits in an aquarium, where these same forms of animal 

 life were supplied. 



Eecently I submitted a series of specimens to my 

 friend, Dr. A. C. Stokes, of Trenton, N. J., who kindly 

 examined the contents of the stomachs of these species 

 by the aid of the microscope, with the following results : 



In the stomachs of a dozen or more adult banded sun- 

 fish he found Chiron omus larvae very numerous ; Cyclops 

 quadricornis numerous ; Daphnia sp. numerous ; chiti- 



