Morr Gamy tuan Bravrirvt. © 981 
distinguish it from other fishes of similar color and apparent 
organization, it should be remembered that the real black 
bass has a red speck in each eye like a dot of carmine. It is 
ulso more delicate in outline, and has a smaller head than the 
Oswego and the Southern bass. The black bass spawns in 
the spring, and, like most fishes which spawn in that season, 
is not supplied with a sac of nutriment attached to the um- 
bilical cord. ; 
The activity and muscular power of the black bass are suf- 
ficient to enable it to hold its own and increase its numbers 
in waters inhabited by the most ferocious fresh-water fishes, 
such as the maskinong¢, glass-eyed pike, and the pickerel or 
pike of the great lakes. 
Tue Brack Bass.—Centrarchus fasciatus.—De Kay. 
With a view to giving the angler a list of the principal 
tishes in the fresh waters of the State of New York, I append 
the following extract from a letter written by an old, intelli- 
gent, and successful angler, who has resided in the central 
part of the state, aud fished for the most gamy part of the list 
of which he writes for more than thirty years. lis theory 
of the black bass hibernating in clefts of rocks is corrobora- 
ted by other authorities, and is doubtless true. But to the 
extract.* 
* “Tn the waters of the St. Lawrence, Ontario Lake, Seneca River, Oneida 
and Cayuga Lakes, there are found the Oswego and black bass, very similar 
in their shape and in some of their habits, so much so that they are often 
mistaken for one and the same species. The Oswego (sometimes known as 
the ‘river bass’) is the heavier fish, often attaining to eight pounds’ weight ; 
are taken at all times during the year, often in winter through the ice. They 
are good hiters, and are game to the last. 
