10 HABITS OF THE BLACK CRAPPIE. 
On November 27, 1915, 13 crappies were caught in a commercial 
seine in Lake Monona. Six of these were empty and the other seven 
had eaten: 54.7 per cent Daphnia, 27.3 per cent Leptodora, 8.5 per 
cent Chironomus viridis larvee, 4.3 per cent C. tentans larve, 2.1 per 
cent Betisca nymphs, 2.1 per cent /schnewra verticalis nymphs, 0.8 
per cent unidentified insect larvee. These observations supplement 
those in Lake Wingra and indicate that the autumn food consists 
mostly of Cladocera and that little or no food is taken in winter. 
In Lake Wingra the best catches are made in the spring after a 
day or two of warm weather, Apparently the crappies do not feed 
during cold weather, but begin in the spring with the first rise in 
temperature. Kmnauthe (1907) has noted that carp usually do not 
begin feeding in spring until the temperature has reached 6 to 8° 
C., but after a hard winter will begin at 3 to 4° C. During the pres- 
ent investigations no crappies were caught in Lake Wingra in the 
autumn after the temperature of the water reached about 10° C. 
Though the variety in the food is rather limited, the crappie gen- 
erally feeds at various seasons on the most abundant foods. Indi- 
viduals caught at the same time and place had, as a rule, fed largely 
on the same items, and these were usually those most readily ob- 
tainable. 
A number of observations indicate that crappies feed mostly at 
night or during the early morning and evening hours. For example, 
on July 15, 1916, 10 individuals were caught in Lake Wingra be- 
tween 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. In 8 of these the stomachs were empty, 
and the other 2 contained small amounts of Leptodora. The intes- 
tines of all contained Leptodora in the anterior portion and chirono- 
mid larve, many chironomid pupe, and Corixa in the posterior part. 
The inference in this case would be that as the midge pupe migrated 
toward the surface during the early part of the night they were 
captured by the crappies; later the Leptodoras rose and were eaten. 
TABLE 2.—Foop AND GROWTH OF SMALL CRAPPIES IN LAKE WINGRA, 1916-17. 
















Num- . = : 
ber | Aver- | Chiro- | wray-y | Pytis: | Dam- Am- | Cope- |Clado- | Oligo- CaCOs 
Date. exam- |, _28@ | nomid hs.| , cid sel-fly | phi- oda,-|" cara: |cheetesdereoe 
taaa length. | larve. ymp4S-) Jarvee. |nymphs.| poda. ese R "| tals. 
Mm. | Perct.| Perct. | Perct.| Perct. | Per ct. |Perct.|Perct.| Per ct.| Perct. 
July Bice: 23 6 30. 8 11.2 26 26'| aoate- A\RS <2 Seas ee 40.4] 20.8 1237). eee 
Aug. 29. 10 37.8 2.6 4.8 15 11.4 2:5]; sSBSL | 7 23 7b soos eens 
Nov. 18. 10 47.1 BoBul ocd. ce eee eee s ose tee 1550) 4356)| soba = Soe so Seon ree 
Nov. 25. 10 47,2 (Satay (pempenene eee (eet Seah,” 1.5 11.5), 56:53] 20 iON So ace, ac | eae 
Dees2e. 2 10 47.2 TB i\ ss cenaeeallenscoeeleneeeeee 18.5 3.3.) OSS en acl eects 
Janalosas = 3 5 48.1 To Ollila. Seheee | ee Se Se Lee Be eke eee: 92.0 AE Oni cis RS <1 on eres 
Jan 27 - sss 3 40-43) | sugees. 5 law Seb ee abet gs > eee 93.3 6, Gils. d2c0| seme ae 
Heb. diZestsc 7 44.5 29 deta fe S66 eed. mal eee A aces 5 ie Pees eee oe e 5.0 
Average .| 8 43.7 | 8.2 4.0 2 1.6 6.0] 56.9} 22.2 2 .6 




During the latter part of the year 1916 and in the beginning of 
1917, there was an opportunity to study the food and growth of 
young crappies which were captured in a small stream on the north 
side of Lake Wingra, near the west end. The results of these obser- 
vations are shown in Table 2. There was rapid growth until the 
middle of November, but no appreciable increase after that time. 
On one very cold day in the winter, January 27, 1917, 8 of the 11 
