162 3I0SQUIT0ES 



larvee, that containing- the fish had no larvae. Mr. E. A. 

 Schwarz informs me that in Beeville, Tex., a little fish 

 which is known locally as a perch is put into rain-water 

 tanks for this express purpose. 



There occur on many large estates in the northeast and 

 elsewhere, ponds which are used for watering- stock. 

 These are sometimes artificial ponds built with rock 

 bottoms to i3revent the exit of the water. They cannot 

 be drained, and on account of their purpose they cannot 

 be treated with kerosene. Into such ponds should be 

 introduced a plentiful supply of top-minnows or some 

 other voracious mosquito-eating fish. 



In a later conversation with Mr. Seal, he told me that the 

 top -minnow was suggested because it is a top -feeder, and 

 being very small and slender, it penetrates to the remot- 

 est shallows of the waters which it may inhabit, especially 

 where plants abound and where larvae of mosquitoes are 

 sure to be found. On second thought, he was inclined to 

 think, however, that for general i^urposes the common 

 little flat sunfish, or " pumpkin-seed " as it is sometimes 

 called, would be a good fish to introduce into Ashless 

 ponds. It grows much larger, of course, but is very pro- 

 lific, and the young do not make a very great growth in a 

 year, so that the young of each year remain compara- 

 tively small, say from three -fourths of an inch to a half- 

 inch, until the young of the following year would be 

 ready for business, which would be by July 1st. The top- 

 minnow, he says, being a soft-raj^ed fish, becomes the 

 easy prey of larger fishes introduced into the same 

 waters, but the sunfish, being protected by spine-rayed 



