American Fisheries Society 125 



As to natural food of the bass, at the Linlithgo Station, 

 in Columbia County, in 1910, the young were fed chiefly on 

 the fry of the river alewife which were introduced for 

 their food. There were also in one of the ponds great 

 swarms of the larvae of a black fly (Simulium sp.)» and it 

 was really wonderful to see the little fish come and feed 

 on these larvse from the hands of the keepers. They lost 

 all fear, so fond did they become of the taste of this larva. 

 This is only one of many natural foods which go to help 

 out the supplies of the fish culturist, and very effectively too. 

 The use of young ale wives was one of the most fortunate 

 expedients ever tried at Linlithgo. I have seen small bass 

 in the wild state at Linlithgo feeding freely on the young 

 of the common chub and other minnows. 



The growth of the young varies greatly with the con- 

 ditions. On July 1, 1907, at the Oneida Station, Foreman 

 Scriba had 6,000 fry in the hatchery tanks, where they 

 did not grow and apparently took very little interest in 

 food. They were soon afterward transferred to a large 

 bass pond where they had plenty of natural food, and 

 their rate of growth was much more rapid than in the 

 cold water of the hatchery. 



At the Oneida Station small-mouth bass are very irreg- 

 ular in feeding. On some days they rush to the surface 

 of the pond eagerly to receive food thrown to them, and 

 they come into full view near the shore, but on other 

 days they feed little or not at all, although live frogs will 

 always tempt them. The adults prefer the chopped 

 flesh of the pickerel because it is white and firm. 

 Suckers are also eaten, but not so freely. 



The disastrous effects of sudden changes of temperature 

 upon the young cannot be too strongly emphasized. At 

 the Oneida Station in 1910 some bass almost a year old 

 w^ere taken out of the pond and put into one of the hatchery 

 troughs where the water temperature was perhaps 10° 

 lower. Within a few days I found a very remarkable state 

 of affairs among these fingerlings. They had been sub- 



