952 FISHES—CENTRARCHIDA. 
noses, they at first endeavor to drive it away or remove it from their nests, and finally, 
I think, swallow it in sheer desperation. 
‘After the young Bass leave the spawning beds, their food at first consists of animal- 
cule, larve, insects, and the ova of other fish; as they grow older and larger, they 
devour worms, tadpoles, and small fish, and later in life, they vary their diet with craw- 
fish, frogs, mussels, and water-snakes, until, attaining a weight of two pounds, they will 
bolt anything from an angle worm to a young musk-rat.” 
126. MicroprEeRus SALMOIDES* (Lacepede) Henshall. 
The Large-Mouthed Biack-Bass. 
Labrus salmoides, LACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., iv., 1802, 716.—Grystes salmoides, HoL- 
BROOK, Ich. S. Car., 1860, 28.—Micropterus salmoides, HENSHALL, ‘‘ Book of the 
Black Bass,” 1881, 110. 
Lepomis pallida, RAFINESQUE, Ich. Oh., 1820, 20 —Micropterus pallidus, JORDAN, Bull. U.S. 
Nat. Mus., x, 1877; Man. Vert., E. U. S., 2d Ed., 1878, 236, and elsewhere. 
Cichla floridana, LESUEUR, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ii, 1822, 219. 
Huro nigricans, CUVIER and VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ii, 1828, 124, and of var- 
ious copyists.—Micropterus nigricans, GILL, Proc. Ass. Adv. Sci., B, 1673, 70, and of 
various writers. . 
Grystes nobilior, AGASSIZ, Amer. Journ. Sci. Arts, xvii, 1854, 298. 
Grystes nuecensis, BAIRD and GIRARD, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila, vii, 1854, 25. 
—Dioplites nuecensis, GIRARD, U.S. Pac. R. R. Surv., x, Fishes, 1858, 4. 
Description.—Body ovate-fusiform, becoming deeper with age, moderately compressed ; 
head large; mouth very wide, the maxillary in the adult reaching beyond the eye, in 
the young shorter; scales on the cheek in about 10 rows, scales on the trunk compara- 
tively large; lingual teeth sometimes present; dorsal fin very deeply notched; colora- 
tion of the young dark-green above, sides and below greenish-silvery ; a blackish stripe: 
along the sides from opercle to the middle of the caudal fin; three dark oblique stripes 
across the cheeks and opercles; below and above the lateral band some dark spots; 
caudal fin pale at base, then blackish, whitish at. tip; belly white. As the fish grows: 
older the black lateral band breaks up and grows fainter, and the color becomes more 
and more of a uniform pale, dull green, the back being darker; a dark opercular blotch 
usually present; head 33; depth 34; D. X, 12; A. III,.11; scales 7-68-16. Length 1 to 2} 
feet. Average weigat of the adult fish 6 to 8 pounds. 
Habitat, Manitoba to Florida and Mexico and all intermediate regions, preferring 
sluggish waters. 
There is a prevalent notion among anglers that the Big-mouthed Bass 
is the Northern species, and the Small-mouthed the Southern. This arises 
from the fact of the great abundance of the present species in many 
Northern ponds and lakes unsuited for the residence of Micropterus dol- 
omieu. This idea is fallacious. Mécropterus salmoides is found in Mexico: 
and Florida, as well as througbout Texas. It is, in fact, as characteristic 
* For a full synonymy of this species, see Henshall’s ‘‘ Book of the Black Bass,” p. 110.. 
