204 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



were eaten to some extent by catfish, perch, and common 

 sunfish. May-fly larvae were fed upon by bluegills, yellow 

 catfish, common bullheads and rock bass. Midge larvae 

 also formed an important part of the food of some of these 

 larger fishes, and many were in the stomachs of bluegills, 

 common sunfish, and long-eared sunfish. Other inverte- 

 brates eaten by fishes on these shoals, but from our examina- 

 tions of their food did not appear to be very important in 

 this respect, were : dragonfly larvae, small snails, small 

 mussels, amphipods, leeches, water mites, caddice worms, 

 and certain protozoans (Arcella). Some fishes were fed 

 upon by others. Least darters {Microperco punctiilata) 

 were found in two young black bass, each 2.5 inches long. 

 Common pike were feeding upon young perch and darters. 

 As in other habitats studied, minnows did not appear to 

 furnish any part of the food of other fishes. Vegetable 

 matter in the form of filamentous, green algae was found 

 in the intestines of some minnows, and it formed a large 

 percentage of the food of the golden shiners taken on these 

 shoals. A black bass, 9.5 inches long, caught in a little bay 

 where there was much water moss (Hypnnm), had a mass 

 of this in its stomach, which it may have taken with crayfish, 

 remains of which were mixed with it. 



4. THE SEDGE ZONE 



Almost encircling the lake was a strip of low ground 

 extending back from the shore to the region of high ground 

 from a few feet to some three hundred feet. Sedges were 

 the chief plants on this low ground. A noticeable relation 

 that this zone had to fishes was through harboring insects 

 which furnished them food. Important among these were 

 midges and May-flies which laid their eggs in the water to 

 produce larvae that were fed upon extensively by fishes. 

 In late summer grasshoppers were numerous in this zone, 

 and now and then one would fall in the lake to be snapped 

 up by some fish. We often noticed such a fate coming 

 to these insects. Bluegills could often be seen resting near 



