Distinctive Features. 47 



lake, at different seasons of the year. In most sections of 

 the country the small-mouth species is more or less spotted 

 or barred, while the other species may exhibit well-defined 

 lateral bands of' dark spots, though these peculiarities are 

 more pronounced in young or adolescent specimens. 



The fins will also be found to vary somewhat in coloring, 

 while the scales and fin-rays may diSer slightly in number, 

 as a variation of one-sixth, more or less, from established 

 formulas is not unusual. Slight dissimilarities of contour, 

 and some diversities pt habits, also, exist. But all of these 

 differences obtain, not only with regard to the black bass, 

 but to most other species of fresh-water fishes, and depend 

 on well-known natural causes. 



I resided for ten years in Wisconsin, where there were 

 twenty lakes, abounding in black bass, within a radius of 

 eight miles of my residence; and from close and constant 

 observation of the characteristics of the bass inhabiting 

 them, I could almost invariably tell, upon being shown a 

 string of black bass, in what particular lake they had been 

 caught. 



Where both species co-exist in the same waters, the small- 

 mouth bass is generally of a darker or more somber hue 

 than the large-mouth bass, whose color is more inclined to 

 shades of green. The coloration of the small-mouth bass, 

 however, in some localities, approaches shades of olive or 

 j'ellow, and there will often be more or less red in the iris 

 of the eye, in some instances shading down to orange or yel- 

 low; this latter distinction, though, like the double curve 

 at the base of the caudal fin, and the more forked tail — 

 which have been regarded by some anglers as distinguish- 

 ing characteristics of this species — can not be depended 

 on, as one or all of these distinctions may be lacking. 



The most distinctive feature, as between the two species. 



