American Fisheries Society 135 



occurred on July 17th, when they were seen to be sloughing 

 away. The new eggs were all formed, and no apparent 

 harm had been done to the fish. The male bass, no doubt, 

 would not be in the pink of condition so late in the season, 

 but I think it possible to keep them back for at least ten 

 days after the first lot has spawned. This can easily be 

 done by placing some of them in a cold spring- water pond 

 early in the season. 



At the Mill Creek Station we have had two separate 

 spawnings of the small-mouth bass for the past three sea- 

 sons. Immediately after the first fry had risen from the 

 nest and commenced feeding, they were removed from 

 the fry retainers and the latter were taken from the 

 pond. Fresh males were then introduced and spawning 

 occurred again, as about one-quarter of the nests had eggs 

 on, but there were not as many eggs per nest as from the 

 first spawning. 



A female bass does not necessarily deposit all of her eggs 

 at the first spawning; it all depends on the male. When 

 he is through he drives her away regardless of her desire to 

 stay longer. What eggs she has not deposited, or most of 

 them, may be secured by introducing a fresh male, as 

 previously described, or perhaps some other male that had 

 his nest ready at the time the first male drove her away will 

 mate with her and secure the balance of her eggs for his 

 nest. What has been said of the female bass may also be 

 said of the males to the extent that they will have two, and 

 I have known of one instance where a male bass fathered 

 and brought off three separate schools of fry in one season. 

 In one pond during the past season five males out of sev- 

 enteen brought off the second school, in another pond seven 

 out of eighteen, and in another three out of nineteen. This 

 occurs only where the first lot of fry is taken away imme- 

 diately after it has risen and commenced feeding. 



Experiments carried on along these lines at the Mill 

 Creek Station the past season lead me to believe that it will 

 be possible to produce at least one-third more fry from the 



