Fig. 233.—Rock Bass, Ambloplites rupestris (Rafinesque.) Ecorse, Mich.
Fig. 234.—Banded Sunfish, Mesogonistius chætodon (Baird). Delaware 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 primitive 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 "perch" of the Sacramento. The latter is a large and gamy fish, valued as food and interesting as being the only fresh-water fish of the nature of perch or bass native to the west of the Rocky Mountains. The numbers of this species, according to Mr. Will S. Green of Colusa, California, have been greatly reduced by the introduction of the catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus) into the Sacramento. The perch eats the young catfish, and its stomach is torn by their sharp pectoral spines. Another species of this type is the warmouth (Chænobryttus gulosus) of the ponds of the South, and still more familiar rock-bass or redeye (Ambloplites rupestris) of the more northern lakes and rivers valued as a game-and food-fish. A very pretty aquarium fish is the black-banded sunfish, Mesogonistius chætodon, of the Delaware, as also the nine-spined sunfish, Enneacanthus gloriosus, of the coast streams southward. Apomotis cyanellus, the blue-green sunfish or little redeye, is very widely distributed from Ohio westward, living in every brook. The dissection of this species is given on page 26, Vol. I. To Lepomis belong numerous species having the opercle prolonged in a long flap which is always black in color, often with a border of scarlet or blue. The yellowbelly of the South (Lepomis auritus), ear-like the showily colored long-eared sunfish (Lepomis megalotis) of the southwest, figured on page 2, Vol. I, the bluegill (Lepomis pallidus), abundant everywhere south and west of New York, are members of this genus. The genus Eupomotis differs in its larger pharyngeals, which are armed with blunt teeth. The common sunfish, or pumpkinseed, Eupomotis gibbosus, is the most familiar representative of the family, abounding everywhere from Minnesota to New England, then south to Carolina on the east slope of the Alleghanies, breeding everywhere in ponds and in the eddies of the clear brooks.
Fig. 235.—Blue-Gill, Lepomis pallidus (Mitchill). Potomac River.
Fig. 236.—Long-eared Sunfish, Lepomis megalotis (Rafinesque). From Clear Creek, Bloomington, Indiana. Family Centrarchidæ.
