THE YELLOW PERCH.
_Perca Flavescens._--The Yellow Perch has, as his name indicates, a
predominant yellow color on his sides; there are a number of dark
vertical bars over the back, and the pectorals, ventrals and anal are
orange. The gill-cover is serrated beneath and armed with a long spine,
and the fore gill-cover has a toothed margin. There are two dorsals; the
ventrals are beneath and slightly behind the pectorals, and the teeth
are minute. The greatest weight is four or five pounds. The fin-rays are
as follows--
D. 13.2.15; V. 1.5; A. 2.8; C. 17-5/5.
Unfortunately, this fish, equally despised by the gourmand and the
sportsman, abounds in our fine ponds and lakes, that ought to be devoted
to his noble congener, the black bass. He will take the fly if it is
allowed to rest in the water, and after hooking a trout that had fouled
in the weeds, I have found a perch on the second fly. He spawns in April
or May, seeking the sandy shore, near projecting roots, where there is a
depth of a foot of water. I have seen them crowded together, male and
female, jostling and following one another round and round through the
roots, pressing out milt and spawn, and so busily engaged that they
could be taken with the net or the hand. In mere wantonness and desire
to diminish their numbers I destroyed all I could, hanging them on
strings with the spawn streaming from them. The eggs, which were almost
transparent, were in the water in masses, kept together by a glutinous
substance, and each marked with a black spot, and could be taken up in
the net, straining slowly through the meshes.
Yellow perch will take worm or minnow, preferring the former, and it is
probable destroy numbers of young trout. Their flesh is coarse, white
and tasteless. They are pursued only by boys and ladies.
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