74 Tzvcnty-seventh Anmial Meeting 



though when you take two or three of them and look at them 

 you may not discover any particular difference, yet if you take 

 enough of them from various localities the characteristics will 

 come out in the average. 



Mr. Whitaker: I have never given any attention to those 

 differences, but I had supposed from my familiarity with fish and 

 from reading Dr. Henshall's Book on the Black Bass, that one of 

 the distinguishing differences between the larg-e and small- 

 mouthed bass was the number of fin rays in the dorsal fins, and 

 the number of fin rays in the dorsal was of a constant character 

 and that the number of rays was always the same in each 

 individual. 



Prof. Birge: The number of fin rays is characteristic for any 

 species of fish, but the number is not absolutely constant. The 

 spinous dorsal fin rays in the black bass are, I believe, ii or 12. 

 Where the number is so small you would expect to find little 

 variation, although it might be possible that in the black bass 

 from one locality you would find a larger proportion with, say 

 II rays, than you would in those from another lake. If that 

 should be found, it would be an instance of the same sort of 

 variation that Prof. Bumpus finds in flatfish. 



Mr. Clark: I would like to ask the professor why there 

 should be this difference, why Dr. Bumpus should probably come 

 to this conclusion that these were artificially hatched eggs. 



Prof. Birge: He does not come to that conclusion. 



Mr. Clark: In a sense he infers it. 



Prof. Birge: No, you don't quite get his idea. Prof. Bum- 

 pus has simply taken these fish from two different localities as 

 an illustration of what might be done to determine whether 

 given fish are the result of planting or of natural increase. The 

 point is this: Suppose that you breed from the fish at Wood's 

 Hole and plant the young along the coast. Later you study 

 the number of fin rays in the flatfish from the places where you 

 have ]:)lanted the fry. The average number of fin rays would 

 sliow you whether the fish were the natural product of the local- 

 ity or the result of planting. 



Mr. Stranahan : I would like to add as to the general sub- 

 ject as to the shape of fishes that we have in northern Ohio two 

 distinct forms of small-mouth black bass, I perhaps might say 

 varieties, although our more scientific friends might consider even 

 "varieties" too strong a word. 



