REPRINT OF ORIGINAL TEXT 77 



I ith Species. Big-ear Sunfish. Icthelis megalotis. 

 Icthele megalote. 



Body oval rounded, (diameter two fifths,) clies[t]nut 

 colour witli blue dots, belly red: bead large, lower 

 jaw longer, opercule with blue flexuose lines, appen- 

 dage black, very large elliptic, end rounded : tail black, 

 slightly forked: pectoral large reaching the vent: 

 anal fin 3 and 9: thoracics long and mucronate. 

 Black tail. 



A fine species, called Red-belly, Black-ears, Black- 

 tail Sun-fish, &c. It lives in the Kentucky, Licking, 

 and Sandy rivers, &c. Length from 4 to 8 inches. 

 Head very sloping. Iris sil- [II. 50] \_3o] very brown. 

 Belly of a bright copper red colour. All the fins 

 black except the pectorals which are olivaceous, 

 trapezoidal acute and large. The dorsal has 20 rays, 

 whereof 9 short ones are spiny. Body very short, 

 hardly as long as broad, if the head and tail are 

 deducted. Thoracics like those of the foregoing 

 species. 



V Genus. River Bass. Lepomis. Lepome. 



This genus differs from Holocentrus by having the 

 opercule scaly, from Calliurus by the opercule only 

 being such, while the preopercule is simple and 

 united above with a square suture over the head, 

 besides the thoracic fins with 6 rays. Perhaps the 

 Calliurus ought only to be a subgenus of this. From 

 the G. Icthelis it differs by the large mouth and spines 

 on the opercule. 



The name means scaly gills. The species are 

 numerous throughout the United States. They are 

 permanent ; but ramblers in the Ohio and tributary 

 streams. They are fishes of prey, and easily caught 



