120 Book of the Black Bass. 



mine read before the American Fisheries Society, in refer- 

 ence to objections urged against the introduction of black 

 bass into eastern waters, upon the theory that the presence 

 of the "voracious" bass would militate against the in- 

 crease of shad, trout or salmon. The objections are not 

 valid, or founded on fact, for the black bass prefers a diet 

 of crawfish, when he can get it, varying it with minnows, 

 insects, larva3, and frogs, and in eastern waters he would 

 not object to young eels. Pike, pickerel, pike-perch, and 

 gar-fish, are almost entirely piscivorous in their habits, 

 which might be expected from the character of their teeth, 

 which are separate, sharp and conical, and their sins have 

 no doubt been charged to the black bass. But, while the 

 bass will take in a young shad or salmon if it comes his 

 way when hungry, he will not make them special objects 

 of pursuit, like the canine-teethed fishes above named. 



The failure to restock such streams, if any such failure 

 exists, must be attributed to other causes than the intro- 

 duction of the black bass, prominent among which is the 

 unrelenting pursuit of the young fry by the predatory 

 fishes mentioned. They are only exceeded in their destruc- 

 tiveness by the genus Homo, with his miles of gill-nets at 

 the mouths of the streams, to prevent the return of the 

 shad or salmon during the breeding season; and should 

 a few run the gauntlet and succeed in depositing their 

 spawn in the upper reaches of the rivers, the eels, bull- 

 heads and suckers take good care of it. 



In western waters where the black bass exists with the 

 usual varieties of fishes, there is no perceptible decrease in 

 the numbers of either. If any species suffers it is always 

 the black bass on account of over-fishing, spearing, etc. I 

 know of isolated lakes in Wisconsin where the black bass 

 has co-existed with the cisco (one of the salmon family). 



