HABITS OF THE BLACK BASS. 51 



FOOD AND- GROWTH. 



Professor S. A. Forbes, of the Illinois State Laboratory 

 of Natural History, has been engaged, for a number of 

 years, in the study of the food of fishes and birds. His 

 examinations have been of the most careful and painstaking 

 character. The following results have been attained in 

 reference to the food of the Black Bass species.* 



Of the large-mouthed Black Bass he examined the food 

 of fourteen adults and seventeen young of different ages. 

 The first group, consisting of five specimens under one inch 

 in length, taken in June, July, and August of different 

 years, showed that the entire food consisted of minute crus- 

 tacea, all Entomostraca, except in the case of a single fish, 

 which showed seven per cent, of a very young amphipod. 



Six specimens, from one and a fourth inches to one and 

 a half inches long had eaten minute fishes (twenty-nine per 

 cent.) and insects (forty-six per cent.), the Crustacea drop- 

 ping to twenty-five per cent. The fishes eaten were not 

 large enough to determine the species. Two specimens be- 

 tween two and three inches long had eaten only insects. 

 Four specimens varying from three to three .and one-half 

 inches in length had eaten nothing but insects and their 

 larvae. In the fourteen adults the food consisted of seven 

 per cent, of crawfishes, a few insects, and eighty-six per 

 cent, of small fishes. 



In regard to the small-mouthed Bass, Professor Forbes 

 says : 



" I have made full notes of the food of twenty-seven speci- 



* The Food of Fishes. By S. A. Forbes. <Bulletin iii, Ills. State 

 Lab. Nat. Hist, 18, 1S80. 



