170 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES 



the boat is a riDg- througli which a stake is driven at the poiut in the 

 pond to be worked. The vegetation is raked from the water in small 

 lots, and unloaded on the banks with a loitchfork. It should be promptly 

 removed from the bank, as it will rot very fast and its presence is 

 objectionable. 



NESTS AND NEST-BUILDING, 



Whenever the spawning period occurs, whether early or late, ample 

 warning is given by the preparation of the nests, which are built by 

 the mated fish, sometimes working in company and sometimes sepa- 

 rately. The nests are ordinarily built in gravel, brushed into neat 

 circular piles 18 inches to 3 feet in diameter, and are usually found in 

 water from IS inches to 3 feet deep, though not infrequently in much 

 deeper water and sometimes in water less than a foot in depth. 



In the proper preparation of the newly built spawning-pond clean 

 gravel, ranging in size from a buckshot to a hickory nut, is arranged 

 in small flat heaps about 4 to 6 feet from the banks as soon as the ice 

 is off in the spring, in advance of the spawning season, and, if well 

 located, it can be used through several seasons and more than once 

 in the same season. Gravel probably possesses no advantage, of itself, 

 over a hard clay bed except that it presents more surface withm a given 

 area for the eggs to attach themselves to; but if gravel of suitable size 

 is to be had the bass usually select it, and no matter how dirty it may 

 be, or how overgrown with moss and algai, they clean it with the caudal 

 fin and tail until it is as bright as if every particle had been polished 

 with a brush, often using the head and mouth to remove the larger 

 stones from the nest. On the Mississippi River and in Texas, however, 

 black bass have been observed to deposit their eggs on mud. 



Some bass build several nests in a season and are compelled to remove 

 a comparatively large quantity of rough and jagged material, yet very 

 few wounded or abraded bass are captured. At Neosho the same bass 

 have been observed at nest-building for seven years without showing a 

 torn or worn caudal or anal fin. Trout, on the contrary, wear their 

 caudal fins and tails to the very bone in their efforts, and often die in 

 consequence. Many of the wounds on the trout at spawning time are 

 due as much to fighting as to the wear and tear of nest-building; and 

 t4ie bass also are hard fighters. 



The proximity of the nests to each other depends on the size of the 

 pond and the number of fish. They are sometimes less than 5 feet 

 apart, and in a spawning-pond of the Michigan Fish Commission, 

 having only 108 square feet of surface and containing 30 adult fish, 

 there were 8 nests. If the nests are placed near the banks, in water 

 from 18 inches to 3 feet deep, the entire process of spawning and 

 incubation is easily observed and the fry can be more conveniently 

 secured and transferred to nursery-ponds at the proper time. The larger 

 fish are apt to select deeper water, but they have been known to decline 

 a clean lot of gravel, in water 3 feet deep and 8 feet away from the 



