120 TELEOSTEI: ACANTIIOPTERI. — XX. 



Chicago. A familiar and active inhabitant of clear brooks, defend- 

 ing its nests with great spirit. " A very beautiful and compact fish, 

 perfect in all its j)arts, looking like a brilliant coin fresh from the 

 mint." (Lat., giljhous.) 



157. MICROPTERUS Lacepede. Black Bass. (fiiKpos, 

 small ; nTepov, fin.) 

 a. Mouth moderate, the maxillary in adult not extending beyond eye; scales 

 small, aliout 11-74-17; young more or less barred or spotted, never with 

 a black latiral band. 



320. M. dolomieu Lacepede. Small-moutiied Black Bass. 

 Body ovate-oblong, growing deep with age ; scales on the cheek 

 small, in about 1 7 rows ; D. less deeply notched than in the next ; 

 the ninth spine about half as long as the longest. Coloration vari- 

 able, the young dull golden-green, with darker spots on sides which 

 tcmd to cluster in short vertical bars; 3 bronze bands across cheeks; 

 C. yellowish, next black, with a wliite tip ; D. with bronze spots. 

 Adult nearly uniform olive-green. Head 3^; depth 3^. D. X, 13u 

 A. Ill, 10. Scales 10 or 11-72 to 75-17. L. 1 to 2 feet; weight 

 2 to 7 pounds. St. Lawrence River to Dakota, S. to S. C, Ala., 

 and Ark., preferring clear and running streams; hence less common 

 S. than the next, and for the same reason usually considered the 

 better game-fish. " The Black-bass is eminently an American fish ,. 

 he has the faculty of asserting himself and of making himself com 

 pletely at home wherever placed. He is plucky, game, brave, un- 

 yielding to the last, when hooked. He has the arrowy rush and 

 vigor of a trout, the untiring strength and bold leap of a salmon, 

 while he has a system of fighting tactics peculiarly his own. I con- 

 sider him inch for inch and pound for pound the gamest fish that 

 swims." (./. A. Henshall.) (To M. Dolomieu, a scientist of Paris.) 

 aa. Mouth very large, the maxillary in the adult extending beyond the eye; 



scales rather large, about 7-C8-16; last spines of I), very short, so that 

 the fin is almost divided into two ; young with a blackish lateral 

 band. 



321. M. salmoides (Lacepede). LARGE-MOCTnED Black 

 Bass. Green Bass. Oswego Bass. Bayou Bass. Body 

 rather deeper and tnorc compressed than in the preceding, growing 

 deeper with age; scales on cheek large, in alxjut 10 rows; !)th D. 

 spine not half length of longest. Color dark green, silvery below ; 

 sides with a broad blackish l)and in young, with some dark spots 

 aVxjve and below it ; three dark stripes across cheeks ; C. jiale at 

 base and tip, mesially dusky. Adult dull green, nearly plain. Head 

 3};«lepth3. D. x', 13. A. HL 11. Scales H-GH-IG. L. 1 to 2^ 

 feet ; weight 3 to 8 pounds. Dakota to N. Y., S. to Florida and 

 Mexico; everywhere abundant, preferring lakes, bayotis, and slug- 

 gish waters. Variable. (Lat., i5)u/?h<;, salmon ; ttSof, like, which it 

 is not.) 



