46 ILLINOIS BIOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS [46 



lake but common also in Fowler, La Belle, Pine, the Nashotahs and 

 Nemahbins, North, etc. Occasionally taken in the Oconomowoc and Bark 

 rivers. Together with Fundulus notatus and F. dispar the most persistently 

 "top-water" minnow. They inhabit the upper foot of water normally, 

 varying in their distribution with day and night and with the seasons as 

 to whether they are littoral or pelagic. Very gregarious, they travel in 

 large schools, and may be seen leaping out of the water after insects on the 

 surface. The fish breed in May, spawning in the shallow water along the 

 lake shore, and the eggs hatch in from 8 to 9 days. The young fish travel 

 out to assume a position over deep water, and here many fall prey to small- 

 mouth bass (M. dolomieu) cisco (L. artedi) and gar (Lepisosteus osseus). 

 The food is very largely animal matter — entomostraca, rotifera (Anuraea), 

 Mysis relicta, and occasionally a considerable amount of insect material 

 (dipterous larvae). An interesting point to be noted is that the fish live 

 for only fifteen to seventeen months: they die during the summer following 

 their one and only spawning. Of no use as a bait minnow, and usually 

 carefully replaced by fishermen who uniformly believe them to be young 

 ciscos. 



Family centrarchidae 



62. Pomoxis annularis (Raf). White Crappie; Silver Bass; Strawberry Bass; 

 Calico Bass. 



Less common than the following species, the white crappie is never 

 distinguished from the darker species by local fishermen, who believe it 

 a color phase of the latter. It is found in nearly all of the larger lakes, and 

 in some of the smaller, such as Laura, showing no particular aversion to 

 muddy water or soft bottoms, though it is more common in lakes with 

 sand and gravel beds. It is a deep water species, living off the bars in 15 

 to 30 feet of water, and frequenting the Potamogeton beds. The young 

 of the year are found in the shallow water weeds along the lake shores, 

 and to some extent up the streams. They bite readily on small minnows 

 (N. blennius) and are a high grade pan fish. I have taken this species in 

 Neosha Millpond, Dodge County, just over the Waukesha county line, 

 weighing 3% pounds. 



63. Pomoxis sparoides (Ladepede). Silver Bass; Crappie; Strawberry Bass; 

 Calico Bass. 



By far the most common of the silverbass in Waukesha county, in- 

 habiting nearly all the lakes, whatever the size, though absent from the 

 small ponds. Like the preceding, an inhabitant of the deeper water and the 

 submerged vegetation. Here they feed voraciously on small minnows of 

 many species, and young of perch, sunfish, pumpkinseed and occasionally 

 of bass. The fish spawn during April, rarely carrying their eggs as late as 

 May 5, and, like the preceding, the young are found along the lake shores 



