56 AMERICAN FISHES. 



The Small -mouth shares with the Large-mouth in the Southern States the 

 names "Jumper," " Pearch " and "Trout," and in Alabama, according 

 to Prof. Jordan, it is called the "Mountain Trout. "Bronze-backer" is 

 one of its pet names among the anglers. 



"Marsh Bass," "River Bass," " Rock Bass," " Slough Bass," "White 

 Bass," "Green Bass," "Spotted Bass," "Green Perch," "Yellow 

 Perch," "Black Perch" and "Speckled Hen " are other names applied 

 to one or both species. A comedy of errors this hath surely been, and 

 the colloquy between the Duke and the Dromios comes pat to the pen : 



"Duke. One of these men is genius to the other ; 

 And so of these. Which is the natural man, 

 And which the spirit ? Who deciphers them ? 



Dromio of Syracuse. I, sir, am Dromio ; command him away. 

 Dro7)iio of Ephesus. I, sir, am Dromio ; pray let me stay."* 



Both species are very widely distributed over the Atlantic slope of the 

 continent east of the Rocky Mountains, and their range is probably much 

 wider than is now supposed, for many of our northern and western waters 

 are still unexplored. The Large-mouth and Small-mouth dwell together in 

 the Great Lakes, and in the upper parts of the St. Lawrence and Missis- 

 sippi basins. The Small-mouth is found north to latitude 47° and west to 

 Wisconsin, while southward it ranges to latitude 33°, where Prof. Jordan 

 found it in the headwaters of the Chattahoochee and Ocmulgee Rivers, 

 this being the only instance of its presence in a stream emptying east 

 of the Alleghanies, into which it is not known to have been introduced by 

 man. The Large-mouth ranges further to the west and north, occurring 

 in the Red River of the North, perhaps as far as Manitoba, in latitude 50°. 

 It abounds in all the rivers of the Southern States, from the James to the 

 St. John, and in the lower reaches of the streams and bayous connected 

 with the Gulf of Mexico, around to Texas, in latitude 27°. 



To the waters of New England and the eastern part of the Middle States 

 they are not native. The Small-mouths found their way into the Hudson 

 in 1825 or soon after, through the newly-opened Erie Canal, and they 

 have since been introduced by man into hundreds of eastern lakes and 

 rivers. Many circumstances suggest the idea that in early days, before 



* For fuller information upon this and other matters connected with the species the reader is referred to Dr. 

 J. A. Henshall's elaborate and exhaustive illustrated treatise, entitled " Book of the Black Bass," published 

 in 1881 by Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati. " Fly fishing for Black Bass," a serial publication by W. S. 

 Norris, in The American Aiz^lcr , is an exceedingly well-written sketch in the American style. 



