re orange with bright blue stripes; the fins with the
membranes orange, and the rays blue. Extending back from the hind
margin of each cheek is a conspicuous blackish membrane termed an
"ear-flap," which in this species is longer than in any other of the
sun-fish family, whence the specific name, _megalotis_, from two Greek
words meaning "great" and "ear."

[Illustration: LONG-EARED SUNFISH.]

Within the placid pools of the brooks and larger streams of the State
this sunfish has its favorite haunts. Mid-summer is the time when its
habits can be best observed. On a recent August morn I sat for an
hour or longer on the banks of a stream, which flows through a wooded
blue-grass pasture, and watched the denizens of its waters. A peaceful
calm existed, the water being without a ripple and with scarce the
semblance of a flow--the air without the shadow of a breeze. Dragon
flies lazily winged their way across the pool, now resting daintily
upon a blade of sedge or swamp grass, now dipping the tips of their
abdomens beneath the surface of the water while depositing their eggs.
The only sounds of nature were the buzz of a bumble-bee feeding among
the flowers of the _Brunella_ at my side, and an occasional drawl of a
dog-day locust from the branches of the sycamore which threw a
grateful shade about me.

The sunfish "hung motionless" in the water, their heads towards me,
holding their position only by a slow flapping of their dorsal and
pectoral fins. Their nesting time over, their season's labor ended, it
was with them, as with many other beings, a time of languor.

These long-eared fishes are the lords and ladies of the respective
pools wherein they abide. When they move other smaller fry clear the
way. If a worm or gnat, falling upon the surface, tempts them, it is
theirs. A leaf falls near them and is seemingly unnoticed--a fly, and
how quickly their dormant energy is put into motion. With a dart and a
gulp the insect is swallowed, and a new stage of waiting expectancy is
ushered in.

How admirably fitted their form for cleaving the water! They often
seem to glide rather than propel themselves through its depths. Again,
how swiftly the caudal fin moves when with straight unerring motion
they dart upon their prey. At times one turns his body sideways, and,
with a slow, upward-gliding motion, moves toward some object on the
surface which is doubtfully "good to eat." He even takes it into his
mouth and then, not having fai