. THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 409 



pond it is stated that Bass weighing. 5^ pound to i pound in June had reached a 

 weight of 6 pounds in the following October. 



In fre?h water, salted eel tail is a favorite bait for taking Striped Bass, and the 

 spoon or spinner is also a good lure, but live Minnows are preferred to all other 

 baits. For surf fishing shedder crab well fastened to the hook is a very killing bait. 



113. White Perch {Moroiic aincricana Gmelin). 



Aloroiif nifa Mitchill, Rept. Fish. N. V., 18, 1814, New York. 



Moroiie pallida Mitchill, Rept. Fish. N. Y., 18, 1814, New York. 



Bodianus rtifiis Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y., I, 420, 1815. 



Labrax riifus DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 9, pi. 3, fig. 7, 1842. 



Labrax pallidiis DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 11, pi. i, fig. 2, 1842. 



Labrax iiigriians DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 12, pi. 50, fig. 160, 1842. 



Rocciis americanus Beax, 19th Rept. Comm. Fish. N. Y., 268, pi. XIX, fig. 23, 1890. 



Moroiie americana Bean, Fishes Penna., 133, pi. 15, 1893; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 



47, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1 134, 1896, pi. CI, XXXI, fig. 479, 1900; Bean, Bull. Am. Mus. 



Nat. Hist., IX, 366, 1897; Mearns, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., X, 321, 1898; 



Eugene Smith, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. Y., 1897, 39, 1898; H. M. Smith, Bull. U. S. F. 



C, 1897, 99, 1898; Bean, 52d Ann. Rept. N. Y. State Mus., 105, 1900. 



This is the Perch or River Perch of Schoepff, which he records as an inhabitant 

 of the coasts of New York and Long Island, in and at the mouths of fresh-water 

 streams. Dr. Mitchill (18 1 5) gives it the name of Red Perch, and states that when 

 not in the breeding season it is called Black Perch because its colors are browner 

 and darker. DeKay describes it, in the Fishes of Nczo York, as the Ruddy Bass. 

 In Great Egg Marbor Bay individuals taken from salt water are sometimes called 

 Yellow Perch or Peerch. 



The species is found from Nova Scotia to South Carolina, and inhabits both salt 

 and fresh water. Mitchill saw specimens 14 inches long and nearly 5 inches deep, 

 from Quag, Long Island. There is an important winter fishery for the White Perch 

 at Bellport. It is taken in seines and gill nets. The writer has occasionally found 

 this species in various parts of Great .South Bay, for example, at .Smith's Point, 

 Whale House Hole, Swan River, also in the east end of Shinnecock Bay, in the 

 fresh water of Head of Creek, near Southampton. The fishermen affirm that when 

 its feeding grounds are disturbed by seining the fish sudtlenly leave the localit}-. 

 The White Perch is never plentiful in Gravesend Bay : it is abundant in fresh-water 

 lakes of Central Park, New York, and Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Near Montauk, 

 Long Island, the species is abundant anil reaches a large size. Eugene Smith has 



