AMERICAN FISHES. 



THE YELLOW PERCH. 



Perca fluviatilis. 



It is a true fish, such as the angler loves to put into his basket or hang on top of his 

 willow twig on shady afternoons, along the banks of the streams. 



Thorbau, Walden Pond. 



HP HE PERCH is a member of a very ancient race. A closely related 

 form has been found fossil in the tertiary deposits of CEningen, and 

 its wide distribution throughout the northern hemisphere testifies to its 

 existence in its present form at a remote period. Additional evidence of 

 the antiquity of the species is found in the fact that its common names 

 are much the same in many European languages which diverged from a 

 common stock, thousands of years back in history. 



The Perch is found almost everywhere in Europe, though it is said to be 

 rare in the north of Scotland. It ranges to Lapland and Siberia, and 

 ascends the slopes of the Alps to the height of more than 4000 feet. It 

 inhabits the sea of Azov, and the brackish waters of the Caspian and 

 Baltic, and is everywhere a well-known and useful species. 



In America it exists in all the waters of the Atlantic slope, from Labra- 

 dor to Georgia, throughout the Great Lake region, and in the upper part 



