THE F R E S H-W ATER BASSES 



markings of the opposite species, leading many 

 anglers to believe that the two are interbreeding 

 in that water, — a condition not beyond possibility 

 and calling for close investigation. About ten 

 years ago I personally examined a three-pound 

 large-mouthed black bass caught in Greenwood 

 Lake, the eye of which was on a vertical line with 

 the angle of the jaws. The ten scales on the 

 cheek, however, determined its species and settled 

 all doubt. 



The small-mouthed black bass in most waters 

 has a bronze lustre which mellows and spreads over 

 the golden green above the lateral line, with here 

 and there dark blotches, particularly on the head. 

 Three bronze bands radiate from the eye across 

 the cheek and gill-covers, and the belly is creamy 

 white, — in some waters of a general pepper-and- 

 salt coloration. As the small-mouth advances in 

 age the pigments lose their strength and the fish 

 becomes of a uniform dead green with a silvery 

 lustre. 



The large-mouth is of "a dark green color 

 above and greenish silvery on the sides and be- 

 low." (In this connection note the yellowish col- 

 oration of the Greenwood Lake bass.) Jordan 

 and Evermann tell us that the blackish blotches 

 along the lateral line, so characteristic of the large- 

 mouthed species, "break up and grow fainter" 

 as they grow older. I have caught many of this 



