American Fisheries Society 127 



was received for examination. All of the viscera of this bass 

 were incased in a mass of cestodes, forming a sheath 

 around certain organs, but without destroying the vitality 

 of the fish. Prof. Edwin Linton identified the larva as a 

 species of tapeworm, and since the receipt of the specimen 

 referred to, other individuals have been forwarded and 

 found to contain the same parasite. The bass is an inter- 

 mediate host of this worm, the final host being some species 

 of water bird. It is important to keep all lakes and ponds 

 free from aquatic birds, as they are related to many 

 troublesome internal parasites of fishes. 



This same condition of parasitism in black bass has been 

 observed in the lakes of Toronto, Canada, where C. W. 

 Nash found it. He says parasites infest fish in what are 

 known as "drowned lands" particularly, and he is inclined 

 to believe that the presence of decomposing vegetable 

 matter is necessary to their existence. 



In the summer of 1909, Judge Joseph I. Green, of Long 

 Lake, sent for investigation a "grubby bass" caught in the 

 vicinity. The parasites were under the epidermis and were 

 evidently related to the Diplostomum species, described by 

 Dr. Hofer in his Handbuch, page 138. Dr. R. S. Ware, of 

 Hague, N. Y., informed the commission in August, 1909, 

 that black bass caught that season in Lake George were 

 very frequently infested with a worm of the Taenia type. 



Black bass fry numbering 57,000 were placed in a small 

 retaining pond at Constantia in 1908, and nearly all of 

 them escaped suddenly. The pond was examined and found 

 to contain numerous borings of about the size of a lead 

 pencil or larger in the bottom and sides through which the 

 fish escaped into Frederick Creek. These borings were 

 made by worms and crawfish which traveled more than 

 50 feet through the earth from the creek to the pond. 

 Crawfish, worms, meadow moles, skunks, and muskrats 

 play havoc with the embankments of ponds at Constantia. 



In the Adirondack region the presence of black bass in- 

 volves the loss of other fish. For example, frostfish are 



