322 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



"I have succeeded in rearing the slriped bass, known in our river as 

 the Croton bass, thus: male and female were placed in a small pond, 

 the water of" which was salted twice each week until the small fry ap- 

 peared, when salting ceased. Sixty days after, the old fish languished, 

 and became excessively weak, in which state they continued to exisi 

 ten days, when they died. The small fry of both shad and bass grew 

 rapidly, and when six weeks old were placed in a larger pond, and 

 their progeny became fresh-water fish. 



"I have a trout pond, which you probably did not see, in which I 

 placed several hundred brook trout, varying from four to twelve 

 inches in length. I was accustomed, for several years, to feed them 

 frequently, and, to my surprise, they became very tame and confiding. 

 On one occasion a large trout fjllowed me around the pond, and so 

 pertinacious was he, that if I suddenly passed around he crossed over; 

 the next day he did the same thing several times, and, finally, I lifted 

 him from the water and discovered a corroded hook in his mouth, after 

 removing which I replaced him in the pond. How can you account 

 for so much instinct in a fish?" 



2. Labrax mucronatus, Cuv. nnd \'al. 



White Perch. 



Labrax mucronatus, Cuv. and VaL, Plist. Nat. Poiss. II, 86. 

 plate xii. — Storer's Report, 8. — Labrax rufas, DeKa\-, Fauna of 

 New York, Fishes, 9, plafe iii, fig, 7. 



The white perch was nt no time during the summer taken in the bay, 

 although in winter they occur there in great numbers, and are caught 

 in seines, with rock-fish, eels, and flounders, which constitute the prin- 

 cipal kinds of that season. They are very common in the Tuckahoe 

 river and Cedar Swamp creek. Cape May county; indeed the}^ exist in 

 almost all the creeks of the salt meadows. The largest were taken in 

 the perfectly fresh water of Cedar Swamp creek, above the tide-water 

 dam, and exceeded a foot in length ; very few, however, attain this 

 size. 



I found them abundant at Suig Sing, New York, in the brackish wa- 

 ters of Croton river; they are also very common, the 3''ear round, about 

 Washington. 



By setting a net across the current of a creek, at high tide, a great 

 many white perch can usually be caught. I have seen many bushels 

 taken out when the ^vater was low. Great care must be exercised, 

 however, lest the crabs, which are intercepted at the same time, eat 

 holes in the net while nibbling at the fish gilled in the meshes. ™ 



The white perch bites readily at a hook, and is frequently caught in ! 

 this way in great numbers. The flesh is very insipid and rather tough ; 

 in fact, the fish is one of the poorest of all the marine species of our 

 coast. 



