PROPAGATION OF BLACK BASS IN PONDS. 231 



Nest guarding — As before intimated, the eggs are viscid and attach themselves as 

 soon as voided and impregnated to the floor of the nest. Then commences a parental 

 devotion worthy of imitation on the part of some higher animals. For a time I was 

 under the impression that the female deserted the nest and the male ftsh took charge. 

 From closer and more extended observation I am now of the opinion that the female 

 is in direct charge, whilst the male acts as an outer sentinel, patrolling 8 or 10 feet 

 away. There is nothing smaller than a man that a bass won't attack when on duty 

 guarding a nest, and there is nothing smaller than a man who attacks a bass at this 

 time. It might be well here to remark that because the nest is bright it makes the 

 female a shining mark for the natural enemies of the bass. On one occasion I saw a 

 fishhawk dart down and take a female from over her nest. The fish-culturist can 

 lessen the probabilities of such disasters by planting a variety of water lilies in the 

 spawning pond, under the broad leaves of which the bass may seek shelter when in 

 danger. 



Hatching — The eggs usually hatch in from 8 to 10 days (9 days is the average at 

 Neosho), though undoubtedly the period of incubation, as with all other fish eggs, is 

 dependent upon temperature. Prior to the hatching of the eggs the female stands 

 guard directly over the nest, maintaining a gentle motion of the fins for the purpose, 

 it is thought, of providing a change of water over the eggs. When the fry leave the 

 eggs the tactics of the mother fish are changed. She no longer stands guard over the 

 nest, but circles around the school, whipping back truants and driving off intruders. 



Size and appearance of the fry. — In the Missouri Fish Commission report (fourth) it 

 is stated that the young bass when first hatched are of minute size. The Wisconsin 

 report (fourteenth) says they are transparent and so small as to be invisible to the naked 

 eye. Dr. Henshall says: 



When hatched, the young bass are almost perfectly formed, from one-fourth to one-half inch in 

 length, and cover the entire bed, where they can be easily detected by their constant motion. 



The bass which have been under my care do not fill either of these descriptions. 

 They do not average over one-fourth inch in length and are colorless for the first three 

 to five days. At the end of that time they are schooling well and pigment forms along 

 the back, making them appear quite dark when viewed from above looking downward; 

 though when caught upon a fine net of bolting cloth or cheese cloth the color in an 

 individual fish is hard to distinguish. 



The school. — It is not easy to determine any definite time or age at which the school 

 disperses. I have found individual members of a school, scarcely half an inch long, 

 widely separated in a pond; and again, have removed an entire school of perfectly 

 formed bass over an inch in length. The breaking up and dispersal of the school 

 would seem to depend partly upon the scarcity or abundance of food, the continued 

 watchfulness or neglect of the parent, and possibly to some extent upon the degree 

 of venturesomeness animating a particular school. When the school has dispersed 

 the young seek the minute crustacea, larvae, and insects in the shallow water. The 

 Wisconsin report asserts that the female locates the young in the shallow waters, but 

 I am inclined to think that it is not a matter of parental direction but of instinct which 

 guides the young bass to the source of greatest safety and food supply. 



Necessity for the work. — It may be asked, if bass are such excellent parents and 

 accomplish the high rate of impregnation which some writers ascribe to them, where 

 is the necessity of putting more than a few adults in a pond, letting them alone, and 

 later harvesting a crop of young 1 ? To such a question I would answer that after the 



