596 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



stomachs of carp. Although it is stated that carp do go about over 

 the spawning grounds of other fish and that they devour the spawn, 

 with the exception of the little given in this paper relative to the 

 white-fish, I do not recall a single case that has been reported upon 

 where sufficient evidence has been adduced to show that such is really 

 the case. The absurdity, for example, of an assertion which has 

 recently been made by a writer in Forest and Stream (Chambers, 

 1904) is obvious on the face of it. This partisan, after deprecating 

 carp as a food fish and speaking of its habit of uprooting wild rice, 

 adds: 



When the stomach of one caught upon the St. Clair Flats was opened last autumn, 

 it was found to contain at least a double handful of rice, while as an ilL stration of 

 their destructiveness upon the spawn of other fish it may be mentioned that a gallon 

 0/ spawn which had been devoured was taken from an 18-pounder — a weight which 

 the carp frequently atttiins. 



The italics are mine. The enthusiasm of partisanship has apparently 

 led this observer into mistaking the spawn of the carp still in the 

 ovary for that of some other fish which has been devoured, for it 

 seems altogether out of the question that the stomach of one 18- 

 pound carp should hold a gallon of spawn. A double handful of 

 rice — wild, or Indian, rice {Ztzania)^ I suppose is meant — might well 

 be present. The greatest amount of material which I have ever 

 taken from the alimentary tract of a single carp would surely amount 

 to much less than a pint, though I can not say that by distention it 

 might not hold more. 



In my own researches at the St. Clair Flats, where the black bass 

 were nesting in numbers, I spent much time in attempting to get direct 

 evidence relating to the question at issue. Most of these observations 

 were made in a small bay where the general water level in the deeper 

 parts was about 3 to 5 feet. The bottom was composed of a fine clay, 

 in most places rather light in color. Practically the only vegetation 

 in this portion of the bay consisted of scattered groups of bullrushes, 

 each clump usually radiating in long lines from a common certer. 

 The bass" nests were in this open part of the bay, large circular ex 9- 

 vations, a few inches deep, and usually appearing much darker than 

 their surroundings on account of the removal of the top soil. As a 

 rule they seemed to be placed near the lines of bulrushes, and were 

 usually plainly distinguishable for a considerable distance on account 

 of the clearness of the water. 



Conditions about the margin of the bay were entirely different. 

 Here the shallow water, 1 to 2 feet or so deep, was thickly grown 

 up with vegetation — flags, sedges, lily-pads, etc. — and was succeeded 

 by wet, marsh}^, grass-covered ground. The bottom here was largely 



«I believe these were the small-mouthed black bass {Micropterus dolomieu), though I find no record 

 of the species made at the time. 



