4?!6 • Roosevelt Wild Life Juuals 



worms. Crickets and crawfish are also used with success there. The large nymphs 

 of dragon-flies make excellent bait. They are called "bass bugs" by the anglers 

 and are collected and sold to them by people residing in the locality. Still fishing 

 takes place from a boat, in twelve or more feet of water, with anchor set. In 

 trolling, the boat is rowed slowly, and a long line with a spoon hook or artificial 

 minnow at the end is drawn through the water not far from shore. 



References. Baker, 'i6; Bean, '92, '02, '03, '09; Bartlett. '18; Bensley, '15; 

 Cheney, '97; DeRyke, '22; Dyche, '14; Embody, '15; Essex and Hunter, '26; 

 Evermann and Clark, '2o;Forbes, '80, '88b; Forbes and Richardson, 'og; Goode, 

 '03; Greeley, '2'/; Hankinson, '08, '10, '15a; Henshall, '03, '17, '19; Howard, '14; 

 Johnson and Stapleton, '15; Jordan and Evermann. '03; Lydell, '04, '07, '10; 

 Lefevre and Curtis, '12; Marshall and Gilbert, '05; Meehan, '13: Moore, '20, '27; 

 Nash, '08; Needham, '22; Nichols and Heilner, '20; Pearse, '18, '21; Pratt, '18, 

 '23: Reighard, '06, '15; Richardson, '13; Smith, H. M., '96, '97; Shelford, '13; 

 Surber, '13; Titcomb, '08, '17: Townsend, '23; Tracy, '10; Turner and Kraatz, 

 '20; \\'agner, '08: Ward and Whipple, '18; Wilson, '19; Worth, '10. 



Lepomis incisor (Cuvier and Valenciennes). Bluegill. This large and 

 well-known sunfish is poorly represented in Oneida Lake, where we obtained but 

 one record of it and that was a market specimen. None was taken in the many 

 collections we made; and nothing was learned of its occurrence in the lake from 

 fishermen or others familiar with its fishes. 



Breeding Habits and Life History. The nests of this species are well known 

 to anglers. They are rather large circular depressions, commonly in the sandy- 

 bottom, in two or three feet of water, and occur in colonies. Hankinson ('08, 

 p. 212) found many Bluegill nests in June, at Walnut Lake, Michigan. There were 

 from nine to fifteen in each colony or group. They were found on shoals barren 

 of vegetation, and sometimes among bulrushes in two or less feet of water. Each 

 nest was about two feet in diameter. The eggs were attached to cleaned roots 

 or other objects of the nest bottom. The fish attending the nests were very shy. 



Richardson ('13, ]). 4T3) found more than fifty nests of this species in May, 

 in a slough near Havana, lllimiis. They were among live willow timber, in water 

 twelve to eighteen inches deep. He says: "The nests were chiefly bunches about 

 the bases of the willows, in some cases as many as a dozen about one tree, all in 

 the shade, and many of them only two or three feet apart. This fish seems ])ar- 

 ticular to select about the same sort of situation for all its nests — a rather hard 

 bottom of sand and mud. with little vegetation, but with some fine dead drift, .grass, 

 twigs, etc. The nests are eight to twelve inches in diameter, usually quite roimd, 

 and the excavation nf the bnltoni soil is always well marked— nsn;illy tn a dejith of 

 half an inch or an inch. . . . The males are nuich more shy than male-- ..f the 

 warmouth bass, hut they can easily be seen and identified on nests by ai)])roaching 

 quietlv." Tn May. 191 1, Richardson found other nests in situations similar to 

 those just (lcscril)cd and. in one case, as many as three dozen, in three feet of 

 water, wholly unpnileclecl by timlier or veget;ition. He telk of a colonv of I'.lue- 

 gills roiling (he water durii'ig the jiroeess of nesi bull. ling, Wri,L;hl and Allen 

 ("13. p. 5) give the breeding time for the s]iecies as May to June 10. and the 

 breeding "place as gravelly or s,-nidy shoals. 



