Part II.] Pond Fish. 49 



At the Kansas State University Natural History Museum 

 the writer has a German carp that weighed over eight ounces 

 that he took from the stomach of a Large-mouth Black bass 

 that he caught at Lake View, in May, 1907. The bass weighed 

 over five pounds and the carp's tail fin was still to be seen in 

 the mouth of the bass when caught, the carT) being so long 

 that it could not be completely swailov/ed by tne bass. 



From the dissected specimens we learned that it takes two 

 or three large crayfish and as many as a dozen small ones for 

 one meal for a two- or three-pound bass. Young catfish, 

 mostly bullheads, from a few inches in length to a half pound 

 in weight have also been found in the capacious stomachs of 

 these greedy fish feeders. Snakes as long or even twice the 

 length of the fish themselves have not infrequently been taken 

 >orr their stomachs; and birds, especially young ones, are 

 sometimes found in the stomachs of the bass. From a speci- 

 men taken at Lake View in June, 1904, the writer took a young 

 and almost full-grown robin. While visiting Mr. C. L. David- 

 son (mayor of the city of Wichita) , a few years ago, he showed 

 me a fine specimen of Large-mouth Black bass that weighed 

 about five pounds that was being kept alive in a small cement 

 pond in his yard. This fish was semi-domesticated and would 

 frequently seize and swallow pieces of meat that were thrown 

 on the surface of the water. It would also catch birds that 

 Iiappened to light on the edge of the pool to drink. Just a 

 few days previous to my visit at Mr. Davidson's, this sly old 

 bass had seized a blue jay that happened to alight near the 

 edge of the pond to quench its thirst. After swallowing the 

 bird, the bass swam around for two or three hours with the 

 ends of the tail feathers of the unfortunate jay protruding 

 from his mouth. The bird, like the carp before mentioned, 

 was so long that it could not be entirely swallowed. Mr. 

 Davidson recently informed me that this same fish captured 

 two more blue jays after my visit to his house. It was neces- 

 sary for the fish to jump from the water in order to catch the 

 birds. 



BLACK BASS A GREAT FAVORITE. 



Judging from the applications for fish that come to the 

 Department of Fish and Game, nearly every owner of a pond 

 wants it stocked with Black bass. This is due for the most 

 part to the following reasons : The Black bass is a well-known, 

 much-talked-about, and much-praised fish ; it not only grows 

 to a fair size, but attains its size in a reasonable length of 

 time; it is considered to be one of the best food fishes, having 

 a good flavor, flaky meat, and not so many bones as some 

 other fishes. However, one of the principal reasons, if not the 

 chief of them all, that makes the Black bass such a prime 

 favorite and puts it in such great demand, is the fact that it 

 is such a splendid game fish — one of the very best in the 

 world to catch with a hook and line. That "pull" that it makes 



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