952 FISHES — CENTRARCHID^. 



noses, they at first endeavor to drive it away or remove it from their nests, and finally, 

 I think, swallow it in sheer desperation. 



"After the young Bass leave the spawning beds, their food at first consists of animal- 

 onlsB, larvae, insects, and the ova of other fish ; as they grow older and larger, they 

 devour worms, tadpoles, and small fish, and later in life, they vary their diet with craw- 

 fish, frogs, mussels, and water-snakes, until, attaining a weight of two pounds, they will 

 bolt anything from an angle worm to a young musk-rat." 



126. MiCBOPTERDS sALMoiDES* (Lacepede) Henshall. 

 The liarge-monthed Black-Bass. 



Labrue aalmoides, Lacbpbde, Hist. Nat. Poles , iv., 1802, 716. — Grystea salmoides, HoL- 

 BKOOK, Ich. S. Car., 1860, 28. — Miaropterua salmoidea, Henshail, "Book of the 

 Black Bass," 1881, 110. 



Zepomia pallida, Eafinesqub, loh. Oh., 1820, 20 — Mioropterua pallidua, Jordan, Bull. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus., X, 1877; Man. Vert., E. U. S., 2d Ed., 1878, 236, and elsewhere. 



Ciohla floridana, LeSuedr, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ii, 1822, 219. 



Suro nigrioana, Cuvikr and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ii, 1828, 124, and of var- 

 ious copyists. — Mieropterua nigrioana, Gill, Proc. Ass. Adv. Sci.^ B, 1673, 70, and of 

 various writers. , 



Grystea noUlim; Agassiz, Amer. Journ. Sci. Arts, xvli, 1854, 293. 



Grystea nuecenaia, Baird and Giraed, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila , vii, 1854, 25. 

 — DiopUtea nuecenaia, Girabd, U. S. Pao. E. E. Surv., x, Fishes, 1858, 4. 



Description. — Body ovate-fusiform, becoming deeper with age, moderately compressed ; 

 head large; mouth very wide, the maxillary in the adult reaching beyond the eye, in 

 the young shorter ; scales on the cheek in about 10 rows, scales on the trunk compara- 

 tively large; lingual teeth sometimes present; dorsal fin very deeply notched; colora- 

 tion of the young dark -green above, sides and below greenish-silvery ; a blackish stripe 

 along the sides from opercle to the middle of the caudal fin ; three dark oblique stripes 

 across the cheeks and opercles ; below and above the lateral band some dark spots ; 

 caudal fin pale at base, then blackish, whitish at tip ; belly white. As the fish grows 

 older the black lateral band breaks up and grows fainter, and the color becomes more 

 and more of a uniform pale, dull green, the back being darker; a dark opercular blotch 

 usually present; head 3i ; depth 3^ ; D. X, 12; A. Ill, 11 ; scales 7-68-16. Length 1 to 2J 

 feet. Average weight of the adult fish 6 to 8 pounds. 



Habitat, Manitoba to Florida and Mexico and all intermediate regions, preferring 

 sluggish waters. 



There is a prevalent notion among anglers that the Big-mouthed Bass 

 is the Northern species, and the Small-mouthed the Southern. This arises 

 from the fact of the great abundance of the present species in many 

 Northern ponds and lakes unsuited for the residence of Micropterm dol- 

 omieu. This idea is fallacious. Mieropterua salmoidea is found in Mexico 

 and Florida, as well as throughout Texas. It is, in fact, as characteristic 



* For a full synonymy of this species, see Henshall's " Book of the Black Bass," p. 110. 



