LEPOMIS — SUNFISHES 253 



from the lower part of Lake Huron. It has been taken sparingly in 

 northern Indiana and Ohio, in Minnesota, and in southern Michigan. 

 Nothing is on record concerning its habits or its life history. 



LEPOMIS MINIATUS Jordan 



Jordan, 1877, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., X, 26. 



J. & G., 476; Forbes, Bull. 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., II. 2, 135 (garmani); M. V., 



119 (garmani); B., I, 24 (auritus [part]), 27 (garmani); J. & E., 1, 1002 (also 



garmani); L., 24 (garmani). 



Length 4 inches; body rather short and deep, usually more or less 

 regularly elliptical ; variously robust or rather, thin ; depth 1 . 8 to 2 in 

 length, usually about 2 in adults. Color dark olive; sides below lateral 

 line striped with rows of bronze or purplish spots, the rows about 7 or 8 

 in number; under parts light, with some brassy luster; upper part of 

 head almost black; cheeks dark bluish green; ear-flap black, its upper 

 and lower margin silvery, sometimes a posterior edging of pale; outer 

 third of soft dorsal and anal reddish brown with narrow edging of paler; 

 caudal reddish behind, with faint pale edging; iris red before and behind 

 pupil. Head 2.9 to 3.1 in length ; profile usually with a more or less 

 decided depression at nape, sometimes almost straight; eye 3 . 9 to 4.3 in 

 head; mouth smaller than in preceding species, maxillary 2.5 to 3 in 

 head, usually about 2.7, reaching but a little past front of orbit; a small 

 supplemental maxillary bone; teeth present on vomers and palatines; 

 lower pharyngeals narrow but heavy, the teeth long but blunt; oper- 

 culum short and broadly rounded behind, its membranous margin broad 

 and fleshy; gill-rakers stout and short, about J diameter of eye. Dorsal 

 X, 10 or 1 1 ; the spines variable, usually rather low, longest 1 . 9 to 2 . 7 in 

 head; anal III, 8 to 10; pectorals variable, always considerably shorter 

 than head, sometimes but slightly longer than to back of cheek in adults ; 

 their length 1 . 2 to 1 . 6 in length of head ; ventrals always extending to 

 vent, sometimes to anal. Scales 5, 34-41, 13 or 14, the number in the 

 lateral line usually nearer 40 than 34; 4 or 5 rows on cheek. 



A comparatively rare sunfish, taken by us but twenty-four times, 

 and mostly from the bottom-land lakes and ponds of the Illinois 

 River. We have collected it also from two localities on the Wabash, 

 from one on the Mississippi in Hancock county, and from one on a 

 branch of the Kankakee. It is evidently a southern species, rang- 

 ing to Florida and Louisiana, and it is not reported by Hay or Osburn 

 in listing the fishes of Indiana or Ohio. It is said to be common in 

 some streams of Texas. Specimens taken by the senior author in 

 1880 and 188S from the Little Fox River at Phillipstown, in White 

 county, and from the Wabash River and Drew pond, near Carmi, 

 were described under the name of Lepomis .garmani. 



Females with mature ova, and spawning or about to spawn, were 

 caught by Dr. Kofoid May 18, 1896, and Craig reported it appar- 

 ently spawning between the 20th and the 30±*h of May, 1898. 



