INTRODUCTION 



from Massachusetts to Florida. It reaches a length 

 of eighteen inches and a maximum weight of six 

 pounds, and is considered one of the valuable food- 

 fishes. It has a voracious appetite and takes the 

 hook with great freedom and regularity. Shrimp, 

 crabs, sea- worms, squid, and small fishes form part 

 of its food. Around Cape Cod the sea-bass spawns 

 in June. The egg is one twenty-sixth of an inch 

 in diameter and hatches in five days in water of 

 59° or 60° F. The young frequent the channels 

 and shallow bays and are often taken in eel-pots. 

 A narrow brown stripe along the middle of the 

 side is a distinguishing mark. The rate of growth 

 is rapid. 



Large sea-bass love the vicinity of sunken wrecks 

 and offshore banks where the bottom is rocky. 

 In the breeding-season the adult male is gor- 

 geously colored and wears a great fleshy hump 

 on the nape. There is a decided tendency toward 

 sluggishness among the big ones, and a fondness 

 for hiding in rock crevices in imitation of the 

 tautog. 



The large-mouthed black bass is one of the most 

 voracious of the fresh-water fishes, and with its 

 voracity is combined a swiftness of motion which 

 brings disaster to its prey. It feeds both at the 

 surface and on the bottom, varying its diet with 

 small fishes of all kinds, not excepting its own 

 offspring, frogs, insects and their larvae, and any 



