Downing. — Hatcheries on the Great Lakes 135 



in another and the pike-perch in a third. So that they seldom interfere 

 with one another. Occasionally the pickerel and the bass will get into 

 a scrap, in which case the pickerel gets the worst of it; but we have 

 never found that the pike-perch interfered in any way with either the 

 bass or the pickerel. Their habits are to keep close to the bottom and 

 among the rocks and in the deeper water, while the bass are among the 

 rocks, but in the shallower parts of the lake. The pickerel are in the 

 muddier parts of the lake among the weeds and leaves. 



Dr. Bean: T might add a word on that subject. The spawning- 

 habits are very different for those three fishes. The pickerel runs up 

 into the bogs in a few inches of water, casting its eggs in masses just 

 after the ice leaves, the bass is a nesting fish, and the pike-perch goes 

 up into the little creeks, spawning at the surface naturally, the female 

 fluttering about near the top of the water and attended by four or five 

 males. Again, the eggs are different, very different indeed, in every 

 respect, so that there seems to be a natural provision for associating 

 those fish in the same waters without injury to any. 



