Alabama, 1913. 77 



THE BASSES AND SUNFISHES. 



THE Bass and Sunfish Family enjoys, on the whole, the widest 

 popularity of all the finny families of North America. With due 

 respect to the justly distinguished Trout Family, it is believed that 

 its members are known, personally to a much smaller number of 

 people than those of the Bass Family. The reason is that the latter 

 are abundant in the most densely populated portions of the United 

 States, while the human neighbors of the trout are comparatively 

 few. 



This Family (of thirty species) leads from the narrow-bodied 

 and athletic black bass, by regular gradations in breadth through 

 the rock bass, calico bass and their allies down to the little gem- 

 like sunfish, with the extreme width of body and the limit of 

 smallness and timidity. The black bass fights like a wild-cat, the 

 sunfish can be taken on a bent pin, at the end of a cotton string; 

 but observe this proportion : 



The Sunfish is to the Small Boy as the Black Bass is to the 

 Man. 



It is good to find in Nature a Family whose members run 

 from top to bottom in a stair-like series ; for if so studied, the 

 natural sequence is a great aid to the memory. 



Surely, the Black Bass, be his mouth large or small, is a fish 

 fit to head a family. You can catch an eight-pound yellow pike- 

 perch, and think you have hooked a bunch of weeds ; but if you 

 hook a two-pound Black Bass you know at once that you have 

 engaged a Fish. 



For its size, this is the bravest and the gamiest fish that swims 

 in our waters. In size and in silver the tarpon is truly the silver 

 king of game-fish ; but if he had Black Bass energy and courage in 

 proportion to his size, no hook-and-line angler in a small boat would 

 bring him alive up to the end of a twelve-ounce rod. 



The Black Bass has the narrowest body and the darkest color 

 found in the Bass Family. It is built for speed and strength, and 

 colored for concealment. There are two species, so very much 

 like that there is practically but one point of difference — the size 

 of the mouth; and naturally their habits are quite identical. It is 

 important to remember, however, that in color and markings, in- 

 dividuals vary most strangely and unaccountably. Some are uni- 

 form dark and light; others are mottled, much and little. 



