CHAPTER XLV 
ORDER OF THE SPINY-FINNED FISHES 
-4 CANTII0PTER1 
Even of forms classed as North American, this 
gigantic and rather unwieldy Order contains 45 
Families and 483 species. Fortunately the 
groups which are of general interest are suffi- 
ciently limited in number that it is possible to 
place representatives of them before the reader. 
THE BASSES AND SUNFISHES. 
Cen-trar' chi-dae. 
The Bass and Sunfish Family enjoys, on the 
whole, the widest popularity of all the finny 
Families of North America. With due respect 
to the justly distinguished Trout Family, I be- 
lieve its members are known personally to a 
much smaller number of people than those of 
the Bass Family. The reason is that the latter 
are abundant in the most densely populated 
portions of the United States, while the human 
neighbors of the trout are comparatively few. 
This Family (of thirty species) leads from the 
narrow-bodied and athletic black bass, by regu- 
lar gradations in breadth through the rock bass, 
calico bass and their allies down to the little 
gem-like sunfish, with the extreme width of body 
and the limit of smallness and timidity. The 
black bass fights like a wild-cat, the sunfish can 
be taken on a bent pin, at the end of a cotton 
string; but observe this proportion: 
The Sunfish is to the Small Boy as the Black 
Bass is to the Man. 
It is good to find in Nature a Family whose 
members run from top to bottom in a stair-like 
series; for if so studied, the natural sequence is 
a great aid to the memory. We therefore begin 
with the narrowest fish, and descend to the 
broadest. 
Surely, the Black Bass, be his mouth large 
or small, is a fish fit to head a Family. You can 
catch an eight-pound yellow pike-perch, and 
think you have hooked a bunch of weeds ; but if 
you hook a two-pound Black Bass you know at 
once that you have engaged a Fish. 
For its size, this is the bravest and the gamiest 
fish that swims in our waters. In size and in 
silver the tarpon is truly the silver king of game 
fishes; but if he had Black-Bass energy and 
courage in proportion to his size, no hook-and- 
line angler in a small boat would bring him alive 
up to the end of a twelve-ounce rod. 
The Black Bass has the narrowest body and 
the darkest color found in the Bass Family. It 
is built for speed and strength, and colored for 
concealment. There are two species, so very 
much alike that there is practically but one point 
of difference — the size of the mouth; and natu- 
rally their habits are quite identical. It is im- 
portant to remember, however, that in color 
and markings, individuals vary most strangely 
and unaccountably. Some are uniform dark 
and light ; others are mottled, much and little. 
The Small- Mouthed Black Bass 1 is the 
fish of the East and North, from western New 
Hampshire to Manitoba, and southward to 
South Carolina and the northern Gulf states to 
Arkansas. 
It is a pity that so fine a fish should not be 
handsomely colored, but it is really very plain 
and unattractive. Its back is usually a uniform 
dull olive-green, the sides being somewhat light- 
er. A Bass of three pounds weight may fairly 
be counted a large one, but this species has been 
known to attain a length of 18f inches, and a 
weight of 5 pounds. 
This is strictly a clear-water fish, and for this 
reason its capture is a source of pleasure beyond 
anything that can be drawn from muddy waters. 
It takes live minnows, or worms, or a neat trolling 
spoon, but resists the hook and the dip-net to 
the last extremity. Its flesh is excellent, and its 
propagation a matter of both state and national 
1 Mi-crop’ ter-us dol’o-mieu. 
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