524 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY - IV. 



spiny-rayed fishes, and in many systems it has been placed first in the 

 scries of fishes. (-lf>*r n Perca, the ancient name of P.fluriatiUs, from 

 >;, dusky.) 



P. wsBS^iriruJia Scliranck. Yellow Perch; American Perch; Kinged Perch. 



Back dark olivaceous; sides golden yellow; belly pale; sides with 6 

 or 8 broad dark bars, which extend from the back to below the axis of 

 the 1 Kxly ; lower fins largely red or orange ; upper fins olivaceous ; usually 

 no distinct black spot on anterior or posterior part of spinous dorsal. 

 Back highest at origin of spiuous dorsal, which is more or less behind 

 insertion of pectoral ; profile convex from dorsal to occiput, thence con- 

 cave anteriorly, the snout projecting. Month somewhat oblique, max- 

 illary reaching opposite middle of orbit. Cheeks closely scaled through- 

 out, the scales imbricated ; opercular striae and rugosities on top of head 

 well marked. Pseudobranchire quite small. Gill-rakers stout, short- 

 ish. Head 3\ in length; depth 3.[. D. XIII-I, 14; A. II, 7; scales 5- 

 55-17. Fresh waters of the Eastern United States; chiefly northward 

 and eastward ; abundant. 



This species has been recently considered as a slight variety of the 

 European Perm Jlnritit!x. It is, however, distinguished by the follow- 

 ing characters: The head in P. amcri<-na is rougher, the opercle more 

 strongly striate, the bones generally with finer and more numerous seme ; 

 the prcorbital is serrate, the scales on the cheeks are larger, imbricated 

 and distinctly ctenoid; the maxillary extends to opposite the middle of 

 the pupil. The gill-rakers are stout, the longest but three times as high 

 as broad. The pseudobranchise are much smaller than in P.Jliiruttilix. 

 First, spine of the dorsal over or behind the posterior edge of the opercle, 

 a series of scales downward from it re-;ching about to base of pectoral. 

 In P.JIitridUlix the dorsal is further forward, and the anterior spines are 

 considerably higher than in 7'. <onfr!c<tn<i. The scales are usually larger 

 in the American species, the dark bars are more sharply defined, and flic 

 black >poi on t he membrane of the last dorsal spines, well defined in P. 

 Jlnridfilix, i> usually wanting. The most important characters, the dif- 

 ference in the insertion of the dorsal, and in the gill-rakers and pseudo- 

 branchia-, have not been noticed by those writers who have decided 

 that our species is identical \\itli the Fmopean. 



/< rr,i iniiri-i'-tiiiti Srhiam-k, iiiiiMit IT'.K). fidrfiill: Bodlanus fareseenn Mitch. Trans. 



Lit. vV I'liil.S;..'. V V. L815, I'-'l: Peroa fltUSWMM IIu11m.uk, Iclilli. S. C. l-r,n, -': Perca 

 iinitii, uml f/rni-ilii ( Jiintlirr, i, r>lMHt: Peroa fluviatilia var. Stciudaclmer, 



. Wiener Akad. 1-Td.) 



