52 FISH CULTUEE 



cousin, tHe common or long-eared. Tlie "bltieS- 

 gill follows a few days later. The commoni 

 long-eared sun-fish usually locates a little 

 deeper than the pumpkin-seed, while the blu©^ 

 gill seeks the deepest water of them all. 



Spawning Time. — ^The sun-fishes and the 

 rock-bass do not begin spawning quite as early 

 as the black bass. In fact they rarely begin 

 nest-building until the latter have almost fin- 

 ished hatching their eggs. It is seldom, when 

 the bass begins spawning the latter part of 

 May or the first of June, that sun-fish have 

 started to clean up their nests. It is not until 

 the end of the first week, or the beginning Of 

 the second week in June that sun-fish activity 

 begins, but when a start is made, there sLtq 

 found to be specimens to continue it until the 

 middle or the latter part of August. There ap- 

 pear to be two distinct periods when there is 

 a more pronounced industry and a greater 

 number of fish on the spawning beds. The 

 first period is from the beginning of June imtil 

 the early part of July; the second is from 

 about the first to the tenth or fifteenth of Au^ 

 gust. 



