American Fisheries Society. 129 



The President: That is the natural spawning bed of the 

 wild bass. 



Mr. Lydell : Yes. In one pond that we have, almost invari- 

 ably they have cleaned off the dirt from the roots carefully 

 around the shore, and spawned, but in the pond that I mentioned 

 where they were confined they did not have enough room to 

 spawn on those places, and so they cleaned off the roots, etc., as I 

 have mentioned. 



Mr. Pea body : In your opinion will the large-mouthed bass 

 guard their spawn beds as pertinaciously as the small-mouthed 

 bass do? 



Mr. Lydell : I do not think so. I do not think they are as 

 voracious or as great fighters as the small-mouthed variety. I 

 think they will give up easier and let something else destroy 

 their bed easier than the small-mouthed bass. The question was 

 raised here a few minutes ago regarding the fighting qualities of 

 the small-mouthed bass. I know of one small-mouthed bass that 

 guarded its bed until it died right on the bed fighting ten other 

 small-mouthed bass, and some of them a great deal larger than 

 he was, but he kept them off for a day and one night until they 

 killed him. 



The President: I have made this assertion, that no carp 

 ever got hold of an e^g, of a black bass unless Mr. Bass had been 

 first taken off from that spawning bed. I do not believe there is 

 such a thing as a carp ever having devoured a single eg^ from a 

 black bass bed where the black bass was on the bed. Of course if 

 the beds are deserted that is different, but as \owg as the bass is 

 alive and guarding the bed, no carp ever got a single Qgg. 



Dr. Parker : ]\Iv observation regarding the spawning hal^its 

 of the large-mouthed bass is that in tlie natural state they prefer 

 the lily roots, but in their absence they will take the roots of 

 grass or anything, biit they like the large spread of the lily root. 



Mr. Bower : Mr. Ravenel stated at the last meeting that in 

 the southern states the big-mouthed bass spawned on sand, gra- 

 vel, clay and in fact almost everywhere, but that they preferred 

 lily roots. 



Dr. Bartlett : The state of Illinois presents exactly that fea- 

 ture in the spawning of bass — you will find their nests every- 

 where from gravel to simple mud. Fifty-one thousand small 



