Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes 297 
is oblong and compressed, the color is dull green crossed by 
black bars or blotches. 
The Sunfishes: Centrarchide.—The large family of Centrar- 
chide, or sunfishes, is especially characteristic of the rivers of 
the eastern United States, where the various species are 
inordinately abundant. The body is relatively short and 
deep, and the axis passes through the middle so that the back 
has much the same outline as the belly. The pseudobranchie 
are imperfect, as in many fresh-water fishes, and the head is 
feebly armed, the bones being usually without spines or serra- 
tures. The colors are often brilliant, the sexes alike, and all 
are carnivorous, voracious, and gamy, being excellent as food. 
The origin of the group is probably Asiatic, the fresh-water 
serranoid of Japan, Bryttosus, resembling in many ways an 
American sunfish, and the genus Kusllia cf the Pacific showing 
many homologies with the black bass, Micropterus. 
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Fig. 231.—Crappie, Pomoxis annularis Rafinesque. Ohio River. 
Crappies and Rock Bass. — Pomoxis annularis, the crappie, , 
and Pomoxis sparoides, the calico-bass, are handsome fishes, 
valued by the angler. These are perhaps the most prim- 
itive of the family, and in these species the anal fin is 
larger than the dorsal. The flier, or round bass, Centrarchus 
macropterus, with eight anal spines, is abundant in swamps 
and lowland ponds of the Southern States. It is a pretty fish, 
attractive in the aquarium. Acantharchus pomotis is the 
mud-bass of the Delaware, and Archoplites interruptus, the 
