The Sunfish Family 51 



from the water, shaking itself violently each time. 

 But the Shiner was equal to " his tricks and his 

 manners," and soon had him in the landing-net. 



" Doctor, why does a hooked bass break water 

 and shake his head ? Is it through fear or rage } " 



" It is to rid his jaws of the hook. He can 

 neither pick his teeth with a fin, nor remove a 

 foreign substance from his mouth with his tail. 

 His mouth is his prehensile organ. A horse, cow, 

 dog, or fowl will shake the head violently to rid 

 its mouth of an offending object. But a fish, 

 having no neck to speak of, can only shake his 

 head by shaking his body, and that only in a 

 lateral direction. As a bass cannot shake him- 

 self energetically enough beneath the water to 

 dislodge the hook, owing to the resistance of the 

 denser medium, he naturally leaps into the air 

 for that purpose ; and he always does so with 

 widely extended jaws, as you have seen time and 

 again this morning. He probably also fortifies 

 himself at the same time by taking in oxygen 

 from the air. He does so, at all events, willy- 

 nilly." 



" How high can a black-bass leap from the 

 water, do you think ? " 



" A foot or two at most, as you well know," 



