43 G BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



92 — IVOTE8 ON THE NATURAL. HISTORV OF THE BUFFALO. 



By HENRY DRESSER. 



[From u letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



1 have lived on tbe banks of the Illinois River, and among fishermen, 

 for more than thirty years, during which time I have had favorable op- 

 portunities for observing the habits of fish. 



The buffalo is our great food-producing fish, and supplies food for 

 game fish. In draining and reclaiming lakes and overflowed lands I 

 have often observed their peculiarities. When the streams begin to get 

 warm and are swollen by the rains of spring, the buffalo goes up the 

 creek sloughs and runs to deposit its eggs. These eggs are very small 

 but very great in number, and are deposited near the edge of these wa- 

 ters. The gar follows close behind, depositing its eggs in the same lo- 

 cality. Their eggs are much larger but less numerous. By the time the 

 young buffalo is half an inch long the gar is two inches long and able 

 to swallow the young buffalo. The pike and bass having spawned and 

 hatched their young earlier in the season, have also the start in growth 

 and can devour young buffalo. Thus proceeds the life-struggle — millions 

 of young buffalo hovering close to the water's edge in order to keep out 

 of the way of their devourers. 



By November the buffalo that has survived is about 4 inches long; 

 the gar about 10 inches, and the pike from 12 to 16 inches, according 

 to the food supply. 



If the buffalo survives until the second year he begins to reach out, 

 and by the autumn is too large to be swallowed by the gar or any but 

 an old pike. Two or three years later the buffalo is many times larger 

 than the gar of the same age, and has then nothing to fear except from 

 the fishermen. I have seen them take buffalo that would weigh 30 

 pounds. 



The buffalo commence to spawn when two years old, and enter upon 

 their life work — furnishing food for game fish. 



Learning that New England waters have been stocked with black 

 bass by the fish commissions, it occurred to me that it would have been 

 better to have first stocked them with buffalo in order that the bass 

 might have plenty of food. But I am not sure that the buffalo would 

 thrive in that latitude, though I intend making the experiment. 



Naples, Scott County, Illinois, 



January 5, 1883. 



