pepe arenes ie bic i ah cut oe ee E 
362 THE BLACK BASS. 
and ward with constant fidelity. Around their beds may be seen 
perch, suckers, eels and catfish in plenty, ready to devour a por- 4 
tion of the ova. The bass are constantly at war with these vora- — 
cious depredators, driving them off from moment to moment, — 
‘t under the current of a heady fight.” Young bass are not seen i 
in large numbers like the herring and some other fresh-water fish ‘7 
swimming near the surface a prey to their enemies. i 
In embryo life they seem to come in a moment! From close 
observation in a small pond where I placed several fish in April 
and May, and where I could daily watch their movements, beds 
were made by several pairs, over which the female hovered contin- 
ually. Here they remained until the 24th of June. Every hour I 
watched them without any evidence of young fry. In the after- 
noon of this day, after an hour’s absence, I returned and discov- 
ered several hundreds of minute young bass hovering at the 
surface of the water, while the parent fish was moving around 
bed as usual. These young fish were darting about with activity — 
— about three-eighths of an inch long, looking like black motes 
the water. For three or four days they kept in this position, a 
then scattered about the edge of the pond among the grass, af 
being thus seen for some two or three weeks, when all sight of 
them was lost till September, at which time a few only were dis- 
covered of about two inches in length, with the tail marked with a 
cross-bar 
The above refers to the first show of life from one bed. On the 
28th of June two other beds in the same manner developed 
young. Most of these died or were devoured by the old oa 
precise time these fish spawn, or the duration of their s 
season, I have not yet fully discovered. I incline to ed op 
the male fish. The act of emitting their spawn I have never 
and repeated efforts to express it from these fish in May, ` 
supposed to be ripe, for the purpose of artificial impregn: 
proved abortive. The ova of this fish are small, about onet 
the size of salmon or trout spawn, very compactly laid in @ 
