490 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



possession of the female and are said to help the process of 

 ejecting the eggs by biting or pressing the belly of the female. 

 After the eggs are deposited, the female guards the nest from 

 the attacks of the crawfish and other fishes. The young 

 are consumed by many birds and by frogs and snakes. Yet, 

 notwithstanding the numerous enemies of the black bass, its 

 multiplication has been rapid and enormous. 



The small mouthed black bass ceases to take food on the 

 approach of cold weather and remains nearly dormant through 

 the winter, except in artificially heated water. A number of 

 the young of the year, received from James Annin jr of Cale- 

 donia N. Y. Oct. 6, 1896, scarcely fed at all in the following 

 winter, but when the spring was advanced they fed eagerly and 

 grew rapidly. 



242 Micropterus salmoides Lac^p^de 



Large mouthed Black Bass ■ 



Labrus salmoides Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV, 716, 1802, South Oarolina. 

 Euro nigricans Cuviee & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. II, 124, pi. 17, 



1828, Lake Huron; De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 15, pi. 69, fig. 224, 



1842; Gunthee, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 255, 1859. 

 Micropterus paJUdiis Goode & Bean, Bull. Essex Inst. XI, 19, 1879. 

 Micropterus salmoides Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 484, 



1883; Meek, Ann. N. Y. Ac. Sci. IV, 313, 1888; Bean, Fishes Penna. 



118, pi. 32, fig. 66, 1893; Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. IX, 364, 1897; 



Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1012, 1896, pi. CLXIII, 



fig. 431, 1900; Mearns, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. X, 320, 1898; Eugene 



Smith, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. Y. 1897, 36, 1898; Bean, 52d Ann. Rept. 



N. Y. State Mus. 105, 1900. 



The large mouthed black bass takes its common name from 

 the size of its jaws; the lower jaw projects very strongly, and 

 the maxilla in the adult extends beyond the hind margin of the 

 eye. The depth of the body is about one third of the total with- 

 out caudal, and does not equal the length of the head. The eye 

 is shorter than the snout, about one sixth of the length of the 

 head. The pectoral is half as long as the head, much longer 

 than the ventral. The spinous dorsal is very low, its ninth and 

 10th spines not so~ long as the eye, its fourth spine longest, 

 about one fourth the length of head. Seven to eight scales 

 above the lateral line, below 16 and in the lateral line about 



