182 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



in a year. The eggs are taken from fish caught in the lake, and are 

 hatched in submerged boxes, provided with double wire-mesh tops and 

 bottoms. The eggs are similar to whiteflsh eggs, being semibuoyant 

 and non adhesive. A 39J-pound fish has been known to have ovaries 

 weighing 5 pounds, and a 35-pouud fish has yielded 265,000 rij^e eggs. 

 Spawning takes place in May, in shallow, grassy places. The eggs 

 are about o- of an inch in diameter and number 74,000 to the quart. 

 About 97 per cent of the eggs impregnated are hatched. With the 

 water temperature at 55° F., hatching eusues in 15 days, the yolk-sac 

 being absorbed in the same time. The fry are very helpless when first 

 hatched. 



Owing to the extremely voracious habits of the muskellunge, great 

 caution should be exercised in distributing the fry, which should, as 

 a general practice, be placed only in those waters in which the fish 

 already exists. 



THE YELLOW PERCH. 



The yellow perch (Ferca JIavescens), known also as ring perch, striped 

 perch, and raccoon perch, is one of the most strikingly marked aud best 

 known freshwater fishes of the Atlantic and North-central States. It 

 is commonly regarded as the type of the spiuyrayed fishes and in some 

 systems of classification is given the first place among fishes. 



The general body color is golden yellow, the back being greenish and 

 the belly pale; six or eight broad vertical blackish bars extend from the 

 back nearly to the median line of abdomen; the lower fins are largely 

 bright red or orange, most highly colored in the breeding male ; the dor- 

 sal fins are dull greenish. The body is elongated, back arched, mouth 

 large and provided with bands of teeth on jaws, vomer, and palate. 



It is found from Nova Scotia to North Carolina in coastwise waters, 

 throughout the Great Lakes, aud in the Upper Mississippi Valley, and 

 in most parts of its range is very abundant. Through the efibrts of 

 the Commission it has been very successfully introduced into lakes 

 in California, Washington, and other Western States, and is now met 

 with regularly in the markets of some of the cities of that region. 



The usual length of the yellow perch is less than 10 inches, and its 

 average weight is under a pound. It is a food-fish of fair quality, and is 

 taken for market in very large quantities annually in the Middle States 

 and Great Lakes, fyke nets, gill nets, seines, traps, aud lines being used. 

 The value of the output is over $300,000 yearly, more than a third of 

 which sum represents the fishery in the Great Lakes. It bites readily 

 at the baited hook and is caught in large quantities by anglers. 



Artificial propagation, in the full sense of the term, has not been 

 attempted with the yellow perch. The eggs have neither been artifi- 

 cially taken nor artificially impregnated, but the brood fish have been 

 impounded and their naturally fertilized eggs hatched. The extent to 

 which this modified cultivation of yellow perch may be carried on in 

 the coast rivers, in the Great Lakes, aud elsewhere is almost limitless. 



