400 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



a regular line from the shoulder to the caudal. Head dark at 

 the top, whitish from under the eye, and on the lower half 

 of jaw. These oblique irregular stripes run horizontally upon 

 the cheeks. Upper fins dusky, lower fins of a yellowish-white. 

 The stripes on the body gradually disappear as the fish grows 

 older (though black spots remain upon the scales, looking like 

 fine lines or stripes), leaving the fish's general colour to be a 

 kind of dark olive-green, dark at the top, lighter, a kind of bright 

 bronze green, in the middle of the sides, and pale olive soften- 

 ing down to yellowish-white in the lower parts of the belly. 

 The Bass which I have endeavoured (very feebly) to represent 

 in the drawing is Micropterus dolomica or Laccpede (the small- 

 mouthed Black), the other true kind of Black Bass, viz. the 

 large-mouthed Black Bass (Aficropterus salmonidas), is quickly 

 distinguished from the former by its enormous mouth as 

 compared with the smaller fish, and from its colour generally 

 being lighter in tint. 



Both the large and small mouthed Black Bass are natives 

 of Canada and the United States, and are found in most of 

 the rivers and lakes of those two countries. These fish are 

 very voracious, and will eat almost anything. A worm, a fly, 

 a minnow, any fish not too large for him to swallow, liver, or 

 frogs, all seem to be acceptable to the Black Bass. He is an 

 excellent sporting fish when hooked, fighting most vigorously 

 and requiring good tackle to land him when of a large size, 

 and as the Black Bass is an exceedingly good fish to eat, 

 tasting more like a whiting than anything else, I am sure that 

 its introduction into the lakes, ponds, and rivers of those 

 parts of the United Kingdom where pike, perch, and other 

 common fish are indigenous, and where trout or salmon do not 

 exist, will be most advantageous in all ways. I do not recommend 

 anyone who is fortunate enough to have good trout or salmon 

 fishing in his district or neighbourhood to import Black Bass, but 

 where only common fish abound, I believe that our friend from 

 the other side of the Atlantic will be found a valuable addition 

 both for sport and for the dinner-table. The Black Bass is said to 



