48 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 
Fic. 28. The pike. 
other dwellers in the stream are restricted to.the shoals and 
to the shelter of rocks or of vegetatiori. Certain of them like 
the pike (fig. 28) are specialized for feeding at the surface: 
others, like the sucker (fig. 29), for feeding at the bottom; 
and the mouth is turned up or down accordingly. The best 
of them are carnivorous and eat habitually other smaller 
fishes. The rock bass seems to prefer crawfishes as food. 
Most of them eat the larve of may-flies and midges, though 
the pikes demand bigger game. The sheepshead eats mol- 
luscs, crushing the shells with its flat-topped molarlike teeth. 
Fishes are among the most beautiful of living things. 
Their colors are splendid. Their motions are all easy and 
graceful. Their habits are most interesting and varied. 
Nearly all the common forms are included in six or seven 
families: the catfishes, the trouts, the pikes (including the 
pickerel), the suckers, the minnows (including the huge carp), 
the perches, and the sunfishes (including the basses). Itis the 
purpose of the following study to promote acquaintance with 
some of these. 
Study 5. Creek Fishes 
A representative lot of a dozen or more of the larger com- 
mon fishes should be available for this exercise. It were 
better to have most of them collected in advance and kept 
alive for examination. A seine may be drawn, or traps taken 
up, as a part of the exercise, but often there are uncertainties 
