FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 105 

weather it retires to deeper water, becomes rather sluggish and takes 
little food. Dr. Henshall states that the crappie is found about dams 
and in deep still portions of streams and ponds, especially about logs, 
brush and drift. 
The crappie is a very free biter and can be caught readily with min- 
nows or worms. Spoon bait has been successfully used in trolling for 
this species. It is recorded that two men have taken a thousand crap- 
pies in three days’ fishing with hook and line. As the fish is grega- 
rious, congregating in large schools, and fearless, it can be taken in the 
immense numbers cited. The best bait for crappie is a small shiner. It 
rises well also to the artificial fly. As a food fish this is one of the best 
in our inland waters and its adaptability for life in artificial ponds 
should make it a favorite with fish culturists. 
Genus AMBLOPLITES Rarrnesque. 
118. Ambloplites rupestris (Rarinesque). 
The Rock Bass. (Figure 10.) 
The rock bass has a robust, oblong body; its depth is contained two and one-third 
times in the total length without caudal, the head two and four-fifths in this same 
length. The caudal peduncle is stout, almost as deep as long. The dorsal profile is 
rather steep, strongly concave over eye. The eye is large, about one-fourth length 
of head, equal tosnout. The mouth is large, the maxillary reaching to vertical from 
posterior end of pupil. The heavy lower jaw projects slightly. The vomer, pala- 
tines, tongue and pterygoid bones all toothed; those on the tongue in a single 
patch. The pharyngeal teeth are sharp. The opercle ends in two flat points ; pre- 
opercle serrated at its angle. Gill-rakers long and strong, less than ten in number. 
Six branchiostegals. Scales large; those on the cheeks in about eight rows. Caudal 
rather deeply emarginate. The dorsal base is about one and onc-half times as long 
as that of the anal. The spines of both fins are stout and rather short. The first 
spine of the dorsal is over the seventh scale of the lateral line, and the last spine is 
over the twenty-fifth scale. The first soft ray is over the twenty-sixth scale and the 
last ray over the thirty-fifth. The anal origin is under the middle of the spinous 
dorsal and the last anal ray is opposite the last dorsal ray. First dorsal spine short- 
est, one-half length of longest spine which is about three fifthsas long as the longest 
ray. The spines and rays of the anal are in about the same proportion to each other 
as are those of the dorsal, the first spine being the shortest and the longest about three- 
fifths as long as the longest anal ray. The soft portions of the dorsal and anal are 
high and rounded. The pectoral is rather short and broad. The ventral long and 
slender, directly under base of pectoral. The lateral line is complete, placed high 
on body and follows the contour of the back. D. XI, 11; A. VI, 11 Seales 5-46-14. 
The specimen described, No. 9401, United States National Museum, nine inches 
long, was collected at Ecorse, Michigan. : 
The rock bass is known under a variety of names. Among them are 
the following: red-eye or red-eyed perch, goggle-eye and lake bass. It 
is found in lower Canada, Vermont and throughout the Great Lake 
region, west to Manitoba, and it is native in Minnesota and Dakota; south 
ward it ranges through the Mississippi valley to Texas. In the Ohio. 
valley it is very common, while in the Middle Atlantic states, east of the 
Alleghenies, it has probably been introduced. Its existence in the 
Susquehanna has been known for about twenty years. 
