TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING. LE 
sce SP ce ne SST ee 
the Mississippi and north of North Carolina, Prof. Jordan, in 
his “ Manual of the Vertebrates,” enumerates eleven genera and 
twenty-six species of sunfishes, and this region would be several 
millions of dollars richer if there were none. 
The sunfish is among the first of the scaly acquaintances made 
by the boyish angler in his Saturday trips to the mill-pond; and 
although there,is a feeling of sentiment in favor of a fish that 
is connected with early angling, and on whose account I was 
many times called into the wood-shed by a stern parent to ac” 
count for absences from school, I now look upon the little fish 
as a great nuisance. Sentiment has no place in the struggle to 
produce food, and the sunfish consumes a vast amount and pro- 
duces nothing. It does not even furnish food to other and 
better fishes to any extent, for its strong spines, which are erect- 
ed when in danger, make it a thorny mouthful. Even when 
these fins are trimmed off it is the poorest of baits, for the pike 
and bass know the fish by sight, and do not seem to investigate 
its improved condition and thus learn that the individual before 
them has been disarmed. There are comparatively large species, 
which in some waters grow to a quarter of a pound in weight; 
but take the fish as they run in the ponds, they seldom reach 
two ounces. 
The food of the sunfish is worms, flies, crustaceans, fish eggs, 
and small fish, especially those which have soft fins, for they do 
not relish their own spinous relatives. Consequently they are 
formidable competitors for the food of the young of valuable 
fishes, even if they did not devour them; but when their pre- 
datory habits are added to their consumption of other food, and 
their fecundity is also known, they at once become recognized 
as among the most injurious foes to fish-culture. 
My attention was strongly called to this fish this spring. 
Near the hatchery at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, of which 
I have had charge this year, are the mill ponds belonging to the 
Messrs. Jones, by whose liberality the hatchery was leased for a 
nominal sum to the New York Fish Commission. I had some 
young land-locked salmon, and Mr. Townsend Jones wished to 
try some of them in the lower pond, which is deep and cold, 
but is infested with sunfish. I recommended placing the fish in 
