LAMPREYS AND FISHES OF INDIANA. 263 



bone extending back to a perpendicular from the middle of the eye. Eye 

 in the head four and one-half. Cheeks and opercles scaly. Dorsal rays 

 X, 13; anal rays III, 11 ; the two portions of the dorsal fin separated by 

 a notch which is comparatively shallow. Scales 10-75-18. Color ex- 

 tremely variable. Usually some shade of green, but sometimes slate 

 color or very dark on the upper surface. Lower regions much paler. 

 Young greenish, with sonJetimes dark spots and vertical dark bars ; 

 never with a dark lateral band. Tail of the young often with a yellow 

 base. Length sometimes as great as two feet. 



United States east of the Rocky Mountains and north into British 

 America. Has been taken in Indiana wherever fishing has been done. 

 Abundant in all our streams. Wabash River (^17, III, 57) ; Carroll 

 County (23, '88, 49) ; Marshall County (2S, '%^, 55) ; Clark and Ohio 

 counties (23, '88, 56) ; Franklin County (5, No. 2, 7) ; Monroe County 

 (i, '85, 411) ; Marion County (i, '77, 376) ; St. Joseph's River and 

 Lower Wabash (i, '77, 44); Kankakee River at Plymouth (4, '8S, 

 156) ; Logansport (^, '88, 159); Vincennes and Posey County (4, '88, 

 164); Owen County (^, '88, 167); Vigo County (^16, '95); Eel River 

 basin (4, '94, 39); Decatur, Henry, and St. Joseph counties (24, '93, 100). 



Of the habits of both this species and the next, a full account may be 

 found in Dr. J. A. Henshall's "Book of the Black Bass." Both are 

 food and game fishes of the first order. Dr. Henshall states that the 

 black bass is extremely prolific, the female yielding fully one-fourth her 

 weight of spawn. The time of depositing the spawn depends somewhat 

 on the temperature of the water. In our State it is deposited from 

 about the middle of May to the middle of July. For this purpose the 

 fishes seek shallow places in streams and lakes. They form nests on 

 sandy or gravelly bottoms in water from eighteen inches to six feet deep. 

 The nests are from one to three feet in diameter, and * are formed by the 

 removal of all sand and silt, so as to leave a bed of pebbles. These nests 

 are often made close to one another. Occasionally they are made on 

 muddy bottoms, having a foundation of small sticks and leaves. The 

 eggs are deposited on the nests in rows and become glued to the pebbles 

 or sticks. As they are being deposited they are fertilized by the male. 

 They hatch in from on to two weeks. When hatched the young are 

 from one-fourth to one-half inch in length. They hover over the nests 

 three or four days, after which they hide in deeper water. During the 

 period of incubation the nest is jealously guarded by the parents. The 

 young eat minute animals and the eggs of other fishes. They grow rap- 

 idly and when a year old are four inches long. When two years old 

 they will measure from eight to twelve inches and weigh about a pound. 

 They may grow thereafter at the rate of a pound a year until they reach 

 the usual weight of four or five pounds. Henshall states that during the 

 winter in the Northern States the black bass buries itself in the mud, in 



