524 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 



spiny-rayed fishes, and in many systems it has been placed first in the 

 series of fishes, {-ep/.r^, Perca, the ancient name of P. fluviatilis, from 



T.ipy.o:;^ dusky.) 



826. P. americana Sclaranck. — Yellow Perch; American Perclt ; Ringed Perch. 



Back dark olivaceous ; sides golden yellow; belly pale 5 sides with 6 

 or 8 broad dark bars, which extend from the back to below the axis of 

 the body ; lower fins largely red or orange ; upper fins olivaceous ; usually 

 no distinct black spot on anterior or posterior part of spinous dorsal. 

 Back highest at origin of spinous dorsal, which is more or less behind 

 insertion of jiectoral ; i^rofile convex from dorsal to occiput, thence con- 

 cav<^. anteriorly, the snout i)rojecting. Mouth somewhat oblique, max- 

 illary reaching opjiosite middle of orbit. Cheeks closely scaled through- 

 out, the scales imbricated ; opercular strine and rugosities on top of head 

 well marked. Pseudobranchi^e quite small. Gill-rakers stout, short- 

 ish. Head 31 in length ; depth 34. D. XIII-I, 14 ; A. II, 7 ; scales 0- 

 55-17. Fresh waters of the Eastern United States; chiefly northward 

 and eastward ; abundant. 



This species has been recently considered as a slight variety of the 

 European Perca JluriatiUs. It is, however, distinguished by the follow- 

 ing characters: The head in P. americana is rougher, the oj)ercle more 

 strongly striate, the bones generally with finer and more numerous serra? ; 

 the preorbital is serrate, the scales on the cheeks are larger, imbricated 

 and distinctly ctenoid ; the maxillary extends to opposite the middle of 

 the pupil. The gill-rakers are stout, the longest but three times as high 

 as broad. The pseudobranchite are much smaller than in P. fluviatUis. 

 First spine of the dorsal over or behind the posterior edge of the opercle, 

 a series of scales downward from it reaching aboiit to base of pectoral. 

 In P. JluviatUk the dorsal is further forward, and the anterior spines are 

 considerably higher than in P. americana. The scales are usually larger 

 in the American species, the dark bars are more sharply defined, and the 

 black spot on the membrane of the last dorsal spines, well defined in P. 

 Jfuviatilis, is usually wanting. The most imi)ortant characters, the dif- 

 ference in the insertion of the dorsal, and in the gill-rakers and i)seudo- 

 branchiie, have not been noticed by those writers Avho have decided 

 that our si)ecies is identical with the European. 



(Perca americana Scliraiick, aboiit 1790, fide Gill: Bodianus Jlavcsecns Mitch. Trans. 

 Lit. & Phil.Soc. N. Y. IHlf), 421: Perca flavescens Holbrook, Iclitb. S. C. 1860, 2: Perca 

 flarcscens, acuta, aud gracilis GihxtlieT, i, 59-60: Perca fliiviaiilis var. Steiudachuer, 

 Sitzuiigsber. Wiener Akad. 187-8.) 



