522 Percoidea, or Perce-like Fishes 
while the smallest (Microperca punctulata) is one of the small- 
est spiny-rayed fishes known, barely attaining the length of 
an inch and a half. In Europe no Etheostomine are found, 
their place being filled by the genera Zingel and Aspro, which 
bear a strong resemblance to the American forms, a resemblance 
which may be a clew to the origin of the latter. 
The Perches.— The European perch, Perca fluviatilis, is 
placed by Cuvier at the head of the fish series, as representing 
in a high degree the traits of a fish without sign of incomplete 
development on the one hand or of degradation on the other. 
Doubtless the increased number of the vertebre is the chief 
character which would lead us to call in question this time- 
honored arrangement. Because, however, the perch has a 
relatively degenerate vertebral column, we have used an allied 
form, the striped bass, as a fairer type of the perfected spiny- 
rayed fish. Certainly the bass represents this type better than 
the perch. 
But though we may regard the perch as nearest the typically 
perfect fish, it is far from being one of the most highly specialized, 
for, as we have seen in several cases, a high degree of speciali- 
zation of a-particular structure is a first step toward its degra- 
dation. 
The perch of Europe is a common game-fish of the rivers. 
The yellow perch of America (Perca flavescens) is very much 
like it, a little brighter in color, olive and golden with dusky 
cross-bands. It frequents quiet streams and ponds from Min- 
nesota eastward, then southward east of the Alleghanies. “As 
a still-pond fish,” says Dr. Charles Conrad Abbott, “if there is 
a fair supply of spring-water, they thrive excellently; but the 
largest specimens come either from the river or from the inflow- 
ing creeks. Deep water of the temperature of ordinary spring- 
water, with some current and the bed of the stream at least 
partly covered with vegetation, best suits this fish.” The 
perch is a food-fish of moderate quality. In spite of its beauty 
and gaminess, it is little sought for by our anglers, and is much 
less valued with us than is the European perch in England. 
But Dr. Goode ventures to prophesy that “before many years 
the perch will have as many followers as the black bass among 
those who fish for pleasure” in the region it inhabits. “A 
