402 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



To the waters of New Englaud and the eastern part of the Middle States they are not native. 

 The Small-mouths found their way into the Hudson in 1825 or soon after, through the newly -opened 

 Erie Canal, and they have since been introduced by man into hundreds of eastern lakes and rivers. 

 Many circumstances suggest the idea that in early days, before the various drainage systems were 

 connected by canals, the distribution limits of the two species were much more sharply defined, 

 the Large-mouth inhabiting, perhaps, the upper part of the basin of the Great Lakes and Saint 

 Lawrence and the rivers of the southern seaboard, while the Small-mouth was found chiefly in the 

 northern part of the Mississippi basin. This theory can never be demonstrated, however, for the 

 early ichthyologists had not adopted the accurate methods of study now in use, and their descrip- 

 tions of the fish they saw are scarcely good enough to guess by. The mingling of the two forms 

 might have been accomplished in an incredibly short lime. A few young Bass will multiply so 

 rapidly as to stock a large lake in five years. The Potomac and its tributaries swarmed with them 

 ten years after their first introduction. 



Gill states that the two forms of Micropterus were represented in waters of the cismontaue 

 slope of the United States, except those of the New England States and the Atlantic seaboard 

 of the Middle States. But one, the Small-mouth, appears to have been an original inhabitant 

 of the hydrographic basin of the Ohio River. 



The Bass do not seem to depend closely on temperature. Having no opportunity of avoiding 

 the cold, they sink to the deepest part of their watery domain at the approach of winter, and if 

 the chill penetrates to their retreats their vitality is diminished, their blood flows more slowly, 

 they feel no need of food, and forthwith enter into a state of hybernation. Mr. Fred. Mather kept 

 one in his aquarium nearly all of one winter. It ate nothing, and seldom moved any member except 

 its eyes. In deep lakes, however, they can sink below the reach of surface chills, and here they 

 are sometimes caught with a hook through the ice. In the South their activity never ceases. Any 

 one who has seen Black Bass feeding must have been impressed with their immense power of 

 movement. They soon become -masters of the waters in which they are placed. Sunfish, perch, 

 trout, young salmon, and even the ravenous pickerel, are devoured. They feed at the surface on 

 moths, flies, and frogs; they turn over stones in search of crawfish and insect larvae. Rats and 

 snakes have been seen in their stomachs. A correspondent of "Forest and Stream" relates that 

 once, while fishing in the Chicago River, one of the small frogs used for bait escaped and perched 

 on a portion of an old wreck above the water. A Black Bass came along, and, lifting his head from 

 the water, picked off the frog, and descended to the depths below. The angler finds them at the 

 proper seasons equally eager for fly-hook, trolling-spoon, or still-bait, and always ready for a strug- 

 gle which puts his rod and line to a severe test. Their leaps are almost as -powerful as those of the 

 salmon. The negro fishermen of Florida often surround a body of Large-mouths with a seine, but 

 as the lines are hauled in and the arc grows smaller the dark forms of the "Trout" begin to appear, 

 springing over the cork line and returning, with a splash and a jet of spray, to liberty. I have 

 seen them rise five or six feet above the water. They are said to be taken best at night, or when 

 the river is high and the water muddy. Otherwise they leap over the seine. Expert seiners coil 

 their nets in such a manner as to prevent the escape of part of the school. The Small-mouths are 

 said, generally, to prefer deep or swift, cool waters, while the Large-mouths live in muddy, black 

 pools, or in the shelter of old stumps and ledges. In Florida they lurk among the lily -pads and 

 aquatic plants in shallow, dark streams, where they feed on a grub called the "bonnet- worm," 

 which burrows in the flower-buds of the "bonnets" or yellow water-lilies (Nuphar advena). 



The spawning season occurs on the approach of warm weather. Its date does not vary much 

 with latitude. In Florida, in Virginia, and in Wisconsin they build their nests in May and June. 



