135 



appearance soon after spawning and leaving the bed. 



In a paper presented before this Society at its 

 seventeenth annual meeting, Mr. C. S. Holt stated 

 that the male and female bass prepared the bed jointly, 

 and that the female guards the young; but he has 

 since acknowledged to me that later observations have 

 convinced him that he was in error. It is positively 

 known that, except under circumstances heretofore 

 noted, the male bass assumes both of these duties. A 

 number of fish have been captured while performing 

 either function, and the identity of the sex established 

 by removing the spermaries. 



In size and color the eggs of the small mouth bass 

 correspond very closely with those of the fresh water 

 herring, being, perhaps, the least trifle smaller in size 

 and a little deeper in color. They will approximate 

 80,000 to the quart. 



The number of eggs per female will range from 

 2,000 to 10,000 or more. It is quite rare that so few as 

 a thousand fry rise from a bed, and as many as 8,000 

 have been taken from a single bed in the river, but 

 3,000 to 6,000 is the usual number. 



The length of the hatching period, so far as obser- 

 vations have been made, varies from seventy hours, at 

 an average temperature of sixtj^-six degrees, to one 

 hundred hours. A merely casual inspection will fail 

 to detect the hatching point, as the fish at first is all 

 sac, which is of the same size as the egg and looks 

 just like it ; but on closer examination it will be noticed 

 that the sphere is slightly elongated and a very faint, 

 shadowy line will be seen to extend about one third 

 the wa3^ around the sac. But the development is very 

 rapid, and in from six to fourteen days, according to 

 temperature conditions, "the sac that is all sac" has 

 become a black, vigorous, young fish. The black 

 blanket of fry that now covers the bottom of the bed is 

 ready to rise, and they begin to swim up and form a 



