384 
ORDERS OF FISHES— SPINY-FINNED FISHES 
handsome and substantial fish. Its bright, sil- 
very coat is beautifully mottled with olive-green 
blotches, so regularly splashed on as to suggest 
the pattern of a piece of calico. 
Take, if you please, a beautiful bay on the 
southern shore of Lake Ontario, a sunny day in 
May, no hotels or cottages in sight, with red- 
winged blackbirds singing “ O-ka-lee' ” in the 
cat-tails, and the Calico Bass becomes one of 
the prettiest fish you can pull out of the water. 
Each time, it gives a firm and vigorous bite, 
and leaves the water with a swish that once 
heard under proper conditions lives long in the 
memory. 
I like the Calico Bass because it is so hand- 
some, so well set-up, so substantial on the string, 
and so delicious on the table. A large specimen 
measures only about ten inches in length, but 
by reason of its great depth of body, and its 
thickness, too, it is a fish well worth having. 
Its weight never exceeds two pounds, and usu- 
ally is about one pound. Besides the names given 
above, it is called the Grass Bass, Bar-Fish and 
“Crappie”; but the latter name belongs to 
another species. 
The Calico Bass is at home throughout the 
whole region of the Great Lakes, the valley of 
the Mississippi to Louisiana and Texas, and 
along the Atlantic side down to the Carolinas 
and Georgia. In the beautiful lakes and ponds 
of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota it is 
abundant, and highly valued. It can be 
taken still-fishing with worms, minnows, and 
grasshoppers, and also with a small trolling 
spoon. 
It dislikes warm and muddy waters, it is a 
clean feeder, not quarrelsome or destructive to 
weaker species, and is said to increase rapidly. 
Strange to say, the propagation of this fine fish 
has received scanty attention from American 
fish-culturists, and in 1900 only 7,544 were dis- 
tributed by the United States Bureau of 
Fisheries. 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 1 is a muddy-water understudy 
of the preceding species. In some portions of 
the North, the two species overlap each other, 
but in the main the Crappie is a southern fish. 
1 Po-mox'is an-nu-lar'is. 
In 1900, the number distributed by the United 
States Bureau of Fisheries was 151,653. 
The Sunfishes are divided into fifteen spe- 
cies, and as a group their range covers the whole 
of the United States eastward 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, pumpkin-seed or dollaree. In about nine 
cases out of ten, the first fish that dangles from 
the first hook-and-line of the very small Ameri- 
can angler is a sunfish. Small though it be, and 
feeble, it is yet a Fish; and it is large enough to 
open to Childhood the door to a great wonder- 
world 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, wrig- 
gling, scintillating Sunfish! Blessings be upon 
their rainbow-tinted sides for the joys they have 
been, are, and yet will be to Childhood! 
Out of so many species it is difficult to select 
representatives, but it seems that first choice 
should fall upon the following: 
The Common Sunfish, or Pumpkin-Seed . 2 
— This is the brilliant olive-green, blue and or- 
ange-yellow fish which when taken dripping 
from the water has all the colors of a green opal, 
and several more. It is distinguishable by the 
touch of bright scarlet on the lower portion of 
its gill-covers. It is found in clear ponds, large 
brooks and other streams from Florida, north- 
ward and eastward of the Appalachian chain 
to Maine, thence westward through the Great 
Lakes region to Iowa and Manitoba. It is sub- 
ject to considerable variations in color markings. 
In the Great Lakes, this fish attains a weight 
of 1J pounds, but elsewhere a specimen 6 inches 
in length and weighing 8 ounces is considered a 
large one. 
The Blue-Gill or Black-Gill 3 is the largest 
of the sunfishes. Its opercle, or gill-cover, 
terminates on the side in an ear-like flap which 
is of a deep black color; and this conspicuous 
character at once proclaims the species. This 
fish is found throughout the Great Lakes region 
and Mississippi valley. It sometimes attains a 
length of 12 inches, and a weight of 1J to 2 
pounds, and in some localities it is an important 
market fish. 
2 Eu-po-to'mis gib-bo' sus. 
3 Le-po'mis pal'li-dus. 
