176 Handbook of Nature-Study 



6. What is the color of the upper portion of the gill opening or 

 operculum? What is the general color of the sunfish? Above? Below? 

 Along the sides? What markings do you see? 



7. Where does the sunfish make its nest? Does the father or 

 mother sunfish make the nest? Do one or both protect it? Describe the 

 nest. 



8. How many names do you know for the sunfish? Describe the 

 actions of your sunfish in the aquarium. How does he act when eating 

 an earthworm? 



Supplementary reading — Chapters XXX, XXXVI, in Fish Stories, 

 Jordan and Holder. 



"The lamprey is not a fish at all, only a wicked imitation of one which can deceive 

 nobody. But there are fishes which are unquestionably fish — fish from gills to tail, from 

 head to fin, and of these the little sunfish may stand first. He comes up the brook in the 

 spring, fresh as "coin just from the mint," finny arms and legs wide spread, his gills 

 moving, his mouth opening and shutting rhythmically, liis tail wide spread, and ready 

 for any sudden -inotion for which his erratic little brain may give the order. The scales 

 of the sunfish shine with all sorts of scarlet, blue, green and pur pie and golden colors. 

 There is a black spot on his head which looks like an ear, and sometimes grows out in a 

 long black flap, which makes the imitation still closer. There are many species of the 

 sunfish, and there may be Jialf a dozen of them in the same brook, but that makes no 

 difference; for our purposes they are all one. 



They lie poised in the water, with all fins spread, strutting like turkey-cocks, snap- 

 ping at worms and little crustaceans and insects whose only business in the brook is that 

 the fishes may eat them. When the time comes, the sunfish makes its nest in the fine 

 gravel, building it with some care — for a fish. When the female has laid her eggs the 

 male stands guard until the eggs are hatched. His sharp teeth and snappish ways, and 

 ^he bigness of his appearance when the fins are all displayed, keep the little fishes away. 

 Sometimes, in his zeal, he snaps at a hook baited with a worm. He then makes a fierce 

 fight, and the boy who holds the rod is sure that he has a real fish this time. But when 

 the sunfish is out of the water, strung on a willow rod, and dried in the sun, the boy sees 

 that a very little fish can make a good deal of a fuss." 



— David Starr Jordan. 



