56 Fish and Game Warden. [Bull. No. 1. 



has a light rod, fine line, a small hook and the real skill, feel- 

 ings and sentiments of an angler. 



Comparative Size. 



The White crappie has always done well in Kansas waters 

 but is apparently being supplanted by the dark variety. It 

 seldom attains a weight of more than one and a quarter 

 pounds in Kansas waters where the writer has examined 

 it. However, the White crappie is usually considered through- 

 out its range to be as large a fish, or even larger in certain 

 localities, than the Black crappie. My personal acquaintance 

 with these two fish in different parts of the country would 

 indicate that both species grow to about the same length, from 

 twelve to sixteen inches, when well-developed or full grown ; 

 but the Black crappie is somewhat deeper and thicker in 

 proportion to its length and weighs a little more on that 

 account. 



The respective measurements of two specimens, each twelve 

 inches in length, one representing each variety, go to show 

 that the Black crappie is a good half-inch deeper in the body, 

 measuring four and one-half inthes, (measured with calipers 

 just in front of the dorsal fin) than the White crappie, and 

 more than one-quarter of an inch greater in width, measur- 

 ing good two inches through the center of the body. The 

 weight of the Black crappie was nineteen ounces and that of 

 the White crappie was fifteen and one-half ounces, the fishes 

 as stated above being of the same length. 



COLOR OF THE BLACK CRAPPH;. 



The ground or general body color is silvery white, the same 

 as in the white species, but there are a very considerable 

 more of dark olivaceous blotches in the BlaoK crappie, espe- 

 cially on the upper half of the body. This colored mottling 

 shows no tendency to form in transverse bands as it some- 

 times does in the White crappie. The mottling or spots on 

 the fins are also more distinct than on the light-colored variety, 

 and their color, while apparently tinged with dark green when 

 loooked at in good light, usually looked sooty black in most 

 specimens examined by the author. 



HABITAT OF THE BLACK CRAPPIE. 



This species is found inhabiting about the same waters 

 as the White capppie, but ranges somewhat farther north. It 

 is reported as abundant in all the ponds and lakes of the Great 

 Lakes region, and as far north as the Ottawa river, Canada, 

 and the Lake of the Woods country, where the author found 

 these fish in 1890. 



The crappies that the author caught in Kansas some forty 

 years ago were, as he remembers them, of the white variety. 

 All specimens collected some thirty years ago and preserved 

 for the State University Museum are of the light-colored or 



