THE WHITE PERCH. 



Morone americana. 



Nor let the Muse, in her award of fame, 



Illustrious Perch, unnoticed pass thy claim, 



Prince of the prickly cohort, bred in lakes, 



To feast our boards, what sapid boneless flakes 



Thy solid flesh supplies ! though overfed, 



No dantier fish in ocean's pastures bred 



Swims thy compeer. Ausonius, The Moselle. 



HP HE apostrophe of Ausonius was prophetic, for his words apply much 

 more exactly to the species of Morone now under discussion than to 

 the Perca which the poet had in mind. 



This fish, closely related to the Yellow Bass, occurs in brackish water 

 in the mouths of rivers, and even, in many instances, in fresh-water ponds, 

 where it had become land-locked, and all along the coast from Georgetown, 

 S. C, to Nova Scotia. Dr. Yarrow states that it abounds in the Tar and 

 Neuse Rivers, N. C. In the Chesapeake and tributary streams it is ex- 

 ceedingly abundant. It also abounds in the lakes and streams of the St. John 

 River, New Brunswick, and in the vicinity of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It 

 has been claimed by certain observers in Florida that White Perch were 

 formerly abundant in that region, and the marketmen of New Orleans 

 state that they were common in Lake Pontchartrain until the Bonnet 

 Carre Crevasse changed the water from salt to fresh. Mr. Stearns and 

 Prof. Jordan having investigated the subject, are of the opinion that these 

 theorists are mistaken. 



