SMALL BASS AND SUN-FISH 53 



Nest-making of the Sun-fish. — Sun-fishes 

 are small in body, but ambitious when it comes 

 to nest construction. The house-building aims 

 of the sun-fishes remind one of the frog, which, 

 in the fable, endeavoured to emulate the pro- 

 portions of the bull. Happily, unlike the frog, 

 which is said to have burst in its efforts, the 

 sun-fish achieves success in his ambitions to 

 outclass his huge cousin, the black bass, in the 

 size, symmetry, design, and even artistic char- 

 acter of his house. 



A sun-fish's nest can, in nine cases out of 

 ten, be distinguished at a glance from that of 

 the small-mouthed bass, even where both have 

 located on the same kind of bottom. The for- 

 mer, is, in the majority of instances, from two 

 to three times as large as that of the bass, and 

 when he can select a sandy place where there 

 is some coarse gravel the nest is almost in- 

 variably a nearly perfect circle surrounded by 

 a symmetrical rim of sand, several inches high. 

 Thus the gravel is arranged in the center of a 

 decidedly bowl-like depression, with almost 

 mosaic exactness of design. This domicile, 

 while fit in every respect for the aecommoda- 



