184 SPINY-FINNED FISHES 



number of Calico Bass and crappie had risen to 738,671. 

 The latest figures that make any showing of an annual catch 

 of Strawberry Bass and crapi:)ie are as follows: 



Mississippi River and tributaries 



(1903) 1,118,770 pounds, worth $53,224 



Minorinteriorwaters (1900-1903). . 25,030 " " 810 



1,143,800 $54,034 



It seems to me that for stocking northern lakes and ponds 

 this is one of the most desirable of all the smaller fishes; and 

 I wish long life and prosperity to the Calico Bass! 



The Crappie^ is a muddy-water understudy of the pre- 

 ceding species. In some portions of the North, the two 

 species overlap each other, but in the main the Crappie is a 

 southern fish. 



The Sunfishes are divided into fifteen species, and as a 

 group their range covers the whole of the United States east- 

 ward of the Great Plains. Poor indeed in fish life is the 

 pond or stream between Maine and Texas, Dakota and 

 Florida which contains no sunfish, bream, or blue-gills, pump- 

 kin-seed, or doUaree. In about nine cases out of ten, the 

 first fish that dangles from the first hook-and-line of the very 

 small American angler is a sunfish. Small though it be, and 

 feeble, it is yet a Fish; and it is large enough to open to Child- 

 hood the ^ door to a great wonderworld of fish and fishing. 

 Where is the veteran fresh-water angler who does not recall 

 the electric thrills of his first "bite," and his first living, 

 wriggling, scintillating sunfish! Blessings be upon their 



^ Po-mox'is an-nu-lar'is. 



