THE PIKE PERCHES. 17 



Dr. Estes : " They spawn," he writes, "from the first to the fifteenth of 

 April, in Lake Pepin sometimes earlier. One season the spawning was all 

 done by the third of April, and every fish had left the beds. Just as soon 

 as the lake is well closed over with ice, they leave the deep water and re- 

 sort to the sand-bars where they remain until the spawning time in the 

 spring. It seems a fact that they select and take possession of the spawn- 

 ing beds fully three months before they are needed for use. I have care- 

 fully observed this habit for more than twenty-five years, and each year's 

 observation is confirmatory. In the first place, we do not take them on 

 these bars in summer, and again two-thirds of all that are taken from the be- 

 ginning of winter to spring are females, proving conclusively that they thus 

 early select these bars as spawning grounds. I have often visited them as 

 early as May, but failed to find the fish, while, from the closing of the lakes 

 to March, they are often found in great numbers. 



" The beds are made on sandy bars, in water from four to eight feet deep. 

 The bottom must be clean, well-washed sand, free from gravel, rocks, mud 

 or grass. The eggs are mixed with the sand but not covered over, and 

 consequently many of them fall an easy prey to the numerous fishes which 

 are on the hunt for them." * 



Little is known of their rate of growth. Heckel and Kner state that the 

 Zander grows rapidly with abundant food, especially if it remains in the 

 marshy districts, attaining in the first year a weight of a pound-and-a-half, 

 in the second two pounds-and-a-half, and in the third, from five to six 

 pounds. In the lower waters of the Danube, however, its weight in the 

 first year is only three-quarters of a pound, and in the second, two pounds. 

 They also say that the Zander lives only from eight to ten years. Dr. 

 Estes tells us that in Lake Pepin the yearling fish are only about two inches 

 long, a story which seems much more credible than that told by the 

 Austrian naturalists just quoted. The Wall-eye does not often exceed ten 

 pounds in weight, though giants of thirty-six inches or more, weighing from 

 twenty to thirty pounds, are on record, f The Sauger is smaller, rarely ex- 

 ceeding eighteen inches in length. Zanders sold in the German markets 

 range from one to four pounds in weight ; the Pike-Perch which come to 

 Washington and New York are usually not larger. 



The Pike-Perch was one of the first species experimented upon by Ameri- 

 can fish culturists. In May, 1S57, it is said, Mr. Carl Muller of New York 



''American Angler Sept. S, 1SS3, and St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 1882. 



f " Dr. Buel took, one in the Kentucky River which weighed nearlr fifty pounds." — Genio C. Scott. 



