FISH OF ONTARIO. 87 



eye. Scales on the cheeks in four rows. The opercular spot short, less 

 than two-thirds diameter of the eye, with a whitish margin behind. Gill 

 rakers very short, moderately stout, 10 or n developed on the first arch. 

 Caudal emarginate, its middle rays four-fifths as long as the outer. The 

 lateral line follows the curve of the back. 



D. X., 12; A. III., 10. Scales, 6-42-13. 



Colour : In life one of the most beautiful of fresh-water fishes ; green- 

 ish olive above, shaded with bluish, the sides spotted and blotched with 

 orange ; belly orange yellow ; cheeks orange with wavy blue streaks ; 

 lower fins orange ; sides profusely mottled with orange. Opercular flap 

 black, the lower posterior part bright scarlet. Grows to a length of eight 

 inches and a weight of half a pound. 



The common Sunfish is very abundant in all the waters of southern 

 and central Ontario, ranging to Lake Huron, which is probably its limit 

 for there are as yet no records of it from the Lake Superior region. 



Though rather too small to be of value as a game or food fish, yet it 

 affords great sport to the younger anglers, and is by no means to be 

 despised upon the table. 



The spawning season is in May and June, the fish resorting to shallow 

 water, where the ova are deposited in nests scooped out in the sand or 

 mud, by the action of the fins. Over these the males keep guard until the 

 young are hatched, in the meantime driving off all intruders and promot- 

 ing circulation of the water by fanning with ventral fins and tail. 



GENUS MICROPTERUS. (BLACK BASS.) 



Body oblong, compressed, the back not much elevated ; head oblong, 

 conical ; mouth very large, oblique, the broad maxillary reaching nearly 

 to or beyond the posterior margin of the eye, its supplemental bone well 

 developed ; lower jaw prominent ; teeth on jaws, vomer and palatines in 

 broad villiform bands, the inner depressible, usually no teeth on the 

 tongue ; preopercle entire, operculum ending in two flat points without 

 cartilaginous flap ; branchiostegals normally six ; gill rakers long and 

 slender; scales rather small, weakly ctenoid; lateral line complete, the 

 tubes straight, occupying the anterior half of each scale ; dorsal fin divided 

 by a deep notch, the spines low and rather feeble, ten in number; anal 

 spines three, the anal fin much smaller than the dorsal ; pectorals obtusely 

 pointed, the upper rays longest, ventrals close together below the pec- 

 torals, caudal fin emarginate ; posterior processes of the premaxillaries 

 not extending to the frontals ; frontals posteriorly with a transverse ridge 

 connecting the parietal and supraoccipital crests, which are very strong. 



Two species ; among the most important of game fishes. 



