60 AMERICAN FISHES. 



They have another reason for seeking a shelter in the shallow water, for 

 their parents are surely guilty of inconsistent conduct. They are said to 

 care tenderly for their callow brood, and even teach them how to eat; 

 but this must be a mistake : for although it cannot be denied that they 

 patiently mount guard over their nestful of eggs, they are often seen 

 devouring their new-born offspring, who thrive in the very teeth of their 

 piratical relatives. 



The rate of growth of the young has been studied in artificial ponds. 

 In Granby, Conn., four-pound fish were taken in 1874, the progeny of 

 two hundred and fifty fish placed in the pond in 1868. The eggs require 

 two or three weeks to hatch. In September the young are about two 

 inches long ; when well fed they grow to four inches the first season. At 

 two years of age they weigh about a pound, few caught in the North 

 weighing more than four pounds. Leaving the egg in June, they grow to 

 two or three inches before cold weather begins — trim, sprightly little 

 darters, with black bands across the bases of their tails. Another twelve- 

 month finds them in the garb of maturity, eight or nine inches long, and 

 with their organs swelling in preparation for the act of spawning, which 

 they are said to undertake at the age of two years, and when less than a 

 foot long. The ordinary size of the adult fish is two and one-half to 

 three pounds, though they are sometimes taken in the North weighing 

 six or seven pounds. In Florida the Large-mouths grow larger. A seven 

 or eight-pounder is not unusual in the St. John's ; and I was told that in 

 March, 1875, a fish weighing nineteen and one-half pounds was caught 

 in the lake at Gainesville, Fla. 



Fish culturists have made many efforts to hatch the eggs of the Black 

 Bass, and have never succeeded. One reason for their failure, perhaps, 

 lies in the fact that, while in the shad and salmon the eggs fall from the 

 ovaries into an abdominal cavity, whence they are easily expressed, in 

 the Bass and other spiny-rayed fishes they are retained until the parent 

 fish are ready to deposit them. This failure is the less to be regretted 

 since the young Bass may easily transported from place to place in barrels 

 of cool water, and, when once introduced, they soon multiply, if protected, 

 to any desired number. 



Black Bass are very tenacious of life. A Germantown correspondent 

 mentions some taken at 10 o'clock a. m., sold and wrapped in paper, 

 left in a warm room till 5 p. m., when they were found to be alive and 

 well. 



