482 Roosevelt Wild Life Annals 



Four larger specimens (3-3j<2 inches) had also eaten Corixa chiefly but nymphs 

 of May-flies in addition. Fourteen adult specimens had apparently taken no ento- 

 mostracans and only a few insects; they had eaten principally fishes, and "of suffi- 

 cient variety to show that no group is safe from the appetite of the bass unless it 

 be the gar." 



Seven per cent of all the food taken by this species was crawfish. Forbes says : 

 "We may generalize these data by saying that this black bass lives, at first, wholly 

 on Entomostraca ; that it commences to take the smallest aquatic insects when about 

 an inch in length, and that minute fishes appear in its diet almost as early. From 

 this time forward, the Entomostraca diminish in importance, and the insects and 

 fishes, become larger and more abundant in the food. The adults eat voraciously 

 of a great variety of fishes — especially the hickory-shad (Dorysouia) — and feed 

 upon crawfishes also to some extent." 



Pearse ('18, p. 266) examined ~8 of these bass from ^^'isconsin to determine 

 the food of the different sizes, from about an inch to eighteen inches in length, 

 and found them to have fed upon small crustaceans, crawfish, insect larvae, worms, 

 fish, frogs and algae. He concludes that the species feeds more on insects (34.2%) 

 than on anything else, though amphipods (13.9 a)- entomostracans (18.1%) and 

 fish (8.7%) are also taken in considerable quantities. The young eat more small 

 insects and entomostracans than do the adults. The largest individuals he found 

 ate nothing but fish, crawfish and frogs. 



Hankinson ('08, p. 214) determined the food of 24 specimens fnim \\'aliuit 

 Lake, Michigan, caught between April 11 and June 10. Nearly all had fed on 

 crawfish. Fish remains were found in but five of the lot. One bass taken April 

 28 had about 350 midge larvae and pupae, besides alderfly larvae and damsel-fly 

 nym]5hs. Crawfish appeared to be the most important food item for Large-mouth 

 Black Bass in Walnut Lake. Evermann and Clark ('20, Vol. i, p. 299) found 

 that young nearly two inches long had only fish remains in their stomachs while 

 adult bass contained both fish and crawfish. And even mice have been found in the 

 stomach of Large-mouth Black Bass (p. 236). Bean ('03, p. 492) declared that the 

 young Large-mouth Black Bass feeds on aquatic animals of all kinds suitable in 

 size, including crawfish, frogs, insects and small fish, and that it feeds both at the 

 surface and on the bottom, pursuing its prey with great activity. Emmeline Moore 

 ('20, p. 16) gives a tabular analysis of the food of eleven young Large-mouthed 

 Black Bass which had fed very largely on entomostracans and immature insects, 

 including Chironomus larvae, May-fly and Odonata nymphs. Algae are taken in 

 small quantities. Wilson in his studies of aquatic insects finds damsel-fly and 

 dragon-fly nymphs an important food of young black bass, together with imagos 

 of damsel-flies ('20, p. 228) : also water beetles ('24, p. 258). The last named 

 were adults of hydrophilids and haliplids and larvae of dytiscids. These larvae 

 constituted the most abundant licetle food and were found in 14 of the in fish 

 f 1 to 3 in. long) examined. 



Turner and Kraatz ('20) have reported on the food of the young Large- 

 mouth Black l^ass in Ohio waters. The character of the food of 141 specimens, 

 measuring froTu ^^ to 314 inches, is shown in a table (p. 374). Twenty-six kinds 

 or groups of organisms were fmnid in these ymnig bass. .Some important gen- 



