Part II.] Pond Fish. 47 



those that belong to the bass, catfish and other predatory 

 families. 



FOOD AND FOOD HABITS OF THE BLACK BASS. 



While the Black basses are notorious and voracious feeders, 

 yet they do not possess such all-devouring, omniverous ap- 

 petites as some of the catfishes. An old Black bass is very 

 finical in his tastes and affectedly over-particular about his 

 menu and the way the various courses are served. The 

 varieties and kinds of food that he takes are limited and he 

 wants these special courses served not only alive, but moving. 



The chief part of a bass's food consists of fish. All kinds 

 of live minnows and young fish in size up to one-half pound 

 in weight are devoured, including, in some instances, young 

 bass themselves, for the Black bass is a veritable cannibal. 

 This cannibalistic tendency is not confined to the well-grown 

 and old bass, but applies also to the young fish; the young, 

 even those that have been hatched but a few weeks, if other 

 food is not plentiful, feed upon each other. It is not a rare 

 thing for fish culturists who study and have the care of young 

 Black bass to find the larger and stronger specimens of a 

 "brood" or school swallowing, or at least attempting to swal- 

 low (for they sometimes fail and even choke to death in their 

 eflforts), the weaker and smaller unfortunates of their own 

 kind.* 



Yesterday, while loading the fish-car, we examined over a 

 dozen young bass that had swallowed smaller members of 

 their own family. An average-sized specimen of these young 

 cannibal basses measured three and one-eighth inches in 

 length, and it had in its stomach another bass that measured 

 one and seven-eighths inches. To-day (October 26, 1910), 

 while the fish are being transported on the car, we have 

 noticed that some of the small bass about three inches in 

 length are swallowing other bass about two-thirds their equal 

 in size. The unfortunates have been seized by the head and 

 while the heads and shoulders are in the stomachs of the larger 

 fish, the tails are protruding from the captors' mouths; and 

 in some instances the protruding tails are wiggling, showing 

 that the captives are still alive. It takes from one to two 

 hours for a captor to get its captive down and out of sight. 

 Thus are the pleasant, friendly relations between "kin" ever 

 kept up and continually renewed in the Black bass family. 



The writer has been studying the food habits of the Black 

 bass for at least forty years. When a boy it was his custom 

 to examine the stomachs of the fish he dressed in order to 

 find out what they had been feeding upon. This operation 

 gave him valuable knowledge when it came to solving the 

 problem of "what to use for bait" — a profound secret never 



* Notes taken from "Fish and Fishing for Fishermen," a book being 

 prepared by the author. 



