132 Tweiity-jiinth Annual Meeting 



DISCUSSION OF MR. LAMKIN's PAPER. 



The Secretary: Mr. President, I want to say that the ex- 

 perience they had at this station, regarding the character of the 

 spawning beds selected, corresponds practically with our ex- 

 perience this spring. We have one pond for big mouth bass, 

 and a portion of it is weedy and grassy and in another portion 

 we placed artificial nests with a gravel bottom. The big mouth 

 bass would no*: spawn on the gravel-l)ottom nests nor work on 

 them, spawning onlv in weedy or rooty places. 



The President: I will say in connection with the bass in 

 Lake Champlain that the large mouth bass selects the reedy 

 and swampy land for spawning. They select the rivers for the 

 purpose of spawning also, and the small mouth bass select the 

 gravel beds, very similar to the trout. 



Mr. Thompson : T wish to say that at the United States 

 Fish Conmiission station, ]^[anchester. Iowa, the large mouth 

 bass don't select gravel or even clay. We built a few artificial 

 nests in the pond but none of them were occupied. They were 

 placed about ten feet away from the shore. Those bass came 

 up practically right on shore, and spawned under the overhang- 

 ing grass, which protected them ; they selected the soft, muddy 

 bottom, where there was aquatic growth to hide them from ob- 

 servation. 



The Secretary : Mr. Lamkin's experience seems to differ 

 from ours in one respect. He speaks of one male having two fe- 

 males on a nest at the same time. It is a very common thing for 

 several male bass to be after one female, but the competition for 

 favors seems to be between the males exclusively ; the reverse of 

 that we have never seen. 



Mr. Ravenel: The spawning of the bass on gravel, or mud, 

 or clay, is something that has attracted attention at the various 

 stations, and it seems to be largely a cpiestion of locality. In 

 Missouri the large mouth bass invariably spawn on gravel; in 

 the Mississippi River \"alley they are utterly indifferent to gravel, 

 they go on the mud or clay ; in Texas we put gravel in the ponds 

 and in no case did they accept it, but deposited their eggs on the 



