QUALITIES^ OF THE BLACK BASS 



known to me that leap into the air on a slack line. 

 The Eastern brook-trout (fontinalis) seldom, if 

 ever, comes entirely out of the water when hooked, 

 unless it be pulled out by the over-zealous angler. 

 Of the salt-water fishes that leap there are 

 only the tarpon, ladyfish, Spanish mackerel, the 

 large kingfish of Southern seas, and, strange to 

 note, the needle-fish or billfish of Key West, which 

 is the most skilled acrobat of them all in either fresh 

 or salt water. I have seen the latter fish make com- 

 plete double somersaults, their long, slim bodies, 

 with the sheen of a polished silver lance, looking in 

 the sunlight like a palpable thread of glancing 

 white light in the blue atmosphere of the Keys. 



When fish leap from the water it is undoubtedly 

 with a view to escaping from the hook, and with 

 many of them the leap is followed by a vigorous 

 shake of the head. In the case of the black bass 

 the shake involves the entire body from the snout 

 to the tip of the caudal fin. The leap on a slack 

 line, which is never made, so far as I know, by the 

 Spanish mackerel and kingfish (not the " barb " 

 or " kingfish " of Northern waters) , is an evidence 

 of superior intelligence or accumulated experience 

 (take your choice) in a fish, for he has evidently 

 found that it is practically impossible to eject a 

 well-entered hook when a taut line holds it firmly 

 in place. 



The black bass always leaps on a slack line, and 



