FISHES OF COLORADO lOI 



reaching in the southern states, where the waters are warm and the food supply 

 optimum the year round, a weight of 14 to 20 pounds,^ the maximum size in the 

 northern states being about 8 pounds. 



Micropterus salmoides ranges from the Red River of the North south into 

 Florida and Mexico, inhabiting small lakes, the quieter portions of rivers and even 

 the brackish waters of some salt marshes. It has been introduced with great 

 success into the western states and into several European countries. The food of 

 the adult bass consists of small fishes, including the young of its own species, 

 crayfish, frogs, tadpoles and insects. Since the food taken is found most abun- 

 dantly in weeds near shore, the deep water at the edge of this zone is the favorite 

 habitat of the black bass, from which it may charge its prey. This fact is well 

 known to anglers who find the deep water at the edge of the weeds a choice place 

 for casting. 



The Large-mouthed Black Bass spawns in spring, from April into June, laying 

 its eggs preferably on a sandy bottom. The eggs are guarded with great zeal by 

 the adult fish. The rapidity with which the young bass develop and the high rate 

 of reproduction may be shown by the statement of Jordan and Evermann^ that 

 from seven or eight females the United States Fish Commission raised over 

 37,000 young bass 3 to 4 inches in length and 500 weighing about one-half pound 

 in a single season, the fishes being kept in captivity from June until Thanksgiving. 

 It is an introduced fish in Colorado. 



Colorado specimens. — University Museum: Boulder Lake, Boulder, October 2g, 1903 (10 

 specimens, 55-140 mm.), C. Juday and J. Henderson, No. 33; Lodgepole Creek near Ovid, July 20, 

 1912 (12 specimens, go-no mm.), J. Henderson and M. M. Ellis, No. 275; Republican River, 

 Wray, October 26, 1912 (14 specimens, 30-170 mm.), A. G. Vestal and M. M. Ellis, No. 404; 

 Youngman's Reservoir, Boulder, October 16, 1913 (180 mm.), M. M. Ellis; State Teachers' College 

 Museum: Windsor Lake near Greeley, A. E. Beardsley. 



Micropterus dolomieu Lacepede 

 Small-mouthed Black Bass, Tiger Bass 



Micropterus dolomieu Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., Vol. IV, p. 325, 1802 (probably South 

 Carolina). 



Body somewhat elongate, distinctly compressed; depth about 3 in the length 

 to the base of the caudal fin; head large and compressed, its length 2.8 (young) 

 to 3 . 5 in the length to the base of the caudal; top of the head not much flattened; 

 eye moderately large, its diameter less than the length of the snout, 5.5 to 7 in 

 the head; posterior margin of the operculum broadly rounded; nostrils small, 

 situated sUghtly in front of the eye near the lateral margin of the side of the head ; 

 mouth terminal and large, angle of the mouth when closed reaching the level of 



■ Henshall, Bass, Pike, Perch and Others, p. 33, 1903, New York; Jordan A^fD Evermann, American 

 Food and Game Fisltes, p. 358, 1902, New York. 

 ' Jordan and Evermann, ibid. 



