218 BLACK BASS. 



have black, green and yellow sides, according to circum- 

 stances, and often within a short distance of one another, 

 though their backs are generally dusky black. 



The gill-cover has two flat points, the teeth are minute, 

 while the back fin, though single, is partly divided into 

 two. It contains ten hard and fourteen soft rays ; the 

 pectoral has eighteen soft rays, the ventral six, the first 

 one almost spinous, the anal three spines, the first very 

 short, and twelve soft rays, and the tail sixteen soft rays. 

 This fish has been confounded with the Lake Huron Black 

 Bass, Hiiro nigricans, which is now supposed to be a 

 different variety, characterized by two longitudinal lines 

 or stripes running the entire length of its body. 



The gill-rays are six and the fin-rays, as given by Dr. 

 De Kay, are as follows, but I think liable to consider- 

 able variation. 



D. 9.1.14 ; P. 18 ; Y. 5 ; A/3.12 ; C. 16. 



Black Bass, belonging as they do to the perch family, 

 have many of the habits and can be captured in the 

 same manner as their congeners. But, as they are infi- 

 nitely superior in flavor, they are equally so in game and 

 sporting qualities. They will take minnows, shiners, 

 grasshoppers, frogs, worms, or almost anything else that 

 can be called a bait, and like all fish, prefer the live to 

 the dead. They may be fished for with good stout 

 tackle, gut leaders, a reel, and an ordinary bass rod, in the 

 same manner as fish are generally captured by boys and 

 blockheads. In June they affect the grassy bottom in 

 water fifteen to twenty feet deep, but as the season 

 advances they resort to the rocky shoals and rapid cur- 

 rents, where they are taken on and after the middle of 



