THE HABITS OF THE BLACK BASS 



eggs to the pound of fish; but the careful count 

 of the mature eggs showed only an exact aggre- 

 gate of 2,674 eggs to the pound. This difference 

 can be accounted for only by the large size of the 

 eggs, and the counting of small eggs which were 

 commencing their maturity for the next production. 



The Baby Bass 



When the young bass reaches a growth of three 

 or four inches they have learned to take care of 

 themselves, and no minnow is so well adapted by its 

 courage and buUd to do so. Like aU other young 

 fish, they may be found in the shallows at all times, 

 but occasionally they venture afar, and it is not 

 unusual, on a baited hook, to catch one three inches 

 long in five or six feet of water. Even those of 

 two inches are fierce and voracious, and seem to be 

 marauders through heredity. When they leave the 

 protecting care of the parent they are about an inch 

 in length, and start out at once on their foraging 

 courses, snapping up every form of insect life in 

 the water, and along the shores one may now and 

 then be seen rising to the surface for an unlucky 

 gnat or small miller. I have seen them routing 

 under small stones for the lesser larvse of the hel- 

 gramite, or dobson, and chasing larger minnows 

 than themselves in the small pools near the shores. 



I do not think there are young fish of any 



15 



