THE SUNFISH 
HE boy who pulls a gamey, fighting pumpkin 
seed from the water should put him in the 
aquarium, instead of eating him, for he is a most 
interesting fish. First of all, he is beautiful; 
his body is cross-striped with dark, dull, green- 
ish or purplish bands, worked out in fish-scale 
embroidery; and alternated with these bands are 
others of gleaming pale green, beset with black-edged 
orange spots, while the body below is brassy yellow. 
As he swims about, shimmering blue, green and 
purple tints play over him. 
The sunfish has large and prominent eyes, the 
black pupil being surrounded by an iris of lavender 
and bronze. There is an ear-like flap extending 
back above the gill-opening, which is as great an 
ornament as a brooch, or an eardrop. It is greenish 
black in color, bordered by shining blue-green, with 
a prominent orange spot in its hind edge. 
The sunfish is often called ‘‘Pumpkin-seed,” or 
“Tobacco-box,” but he really ought to be called 
“Indian Chief,’’ for when his dorsal fin is raised, 
it looks like the headdress of a chieftan. 
The male sunfish is especially beautiful in the 
spring; it is then he goes wooing, and needs his gay 
clothes in order to win his mate. First of all he 
builds him a charming little nest in shallow water 
near the shore, well hidden by pond plants. He 
digs out the pebbles and sand, making a saucer- 
like basin; sometimes the nest is lined with the natural 
sand, and sometimes with the rootlets of water 
plants. In diameter the nest is about twice the 
length of the fish. 
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