THE BLACK BASS. 155 



The male and female pair and form a circular, shallow nest 

 in coarse sand or gravel, where the eggs and milt are deposit- 

 ed, and hatch in about two weeks. A female Black Bass 

 will deposit between ten and twenty thousand eggs. The 

 young fry are about three-eighths of an inch long when 

 hatched, and remain on the nests several days or a week. 

 The parent fish watches and protects the eggs, and afterward 

 the young fry. The 5 r oung Bass grow rapidly, reaching a 

 length of three or four inches when a year old, and eight or 

 ten inches when two years old. They mature about the age 

 of three years. 



FOOD AND GROWTH. 



The food of the young fry, at first, consists of minute Crus- 

 tacea and other animalcules; afterward, almost entirely of 

 insects until a year old; the second year they begin feeding 

 on crawfish and small minnows, always preferring the former; 

 the prevalent opinion that Black Bass feed almost exclusively 

 on other fishes is incorrect and untrue. 



The maximum weight of the Small-mouthed Bass is five 

 pounds, the Large-mouthed Bass growing a pound or two 

 heavier, though in Florida the latter reaches fifteen pounds; 

 of course there are individual exceptions where both species 

 have attained a greater weight. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



The Black Bass now inhabits every State of the Union east 

 of the Rocky Mountains, and portions of California on the 

 Western Slope. It has been successfully transplanted in 

 England, Scotland, Germany, and the Netherlands; in time 

 it will become cosmopolitan. In the Northern States it un- 

 dergoes a more or less complete hibernation, according to 

 the climate, and in the extreme South, during the hottest 

 portion of summer, undergoes the analogous condition of 

 aestivation. 



