53 



Albany. Some tisli hatched, but whether from the natural 

 or artilicial impregnated eggs is not known. 



Last year some perch were received from Dr. S. P. Bart- 

 lett, Illinois, among a lot of black bass, live females and 

 one male, and again an opportunity offered to note their 

 breeding habits. 



The eggs of this fish are laid in a long ribbon, which is 

 perhaps a foot long and two inches wide, double and 

 wrinkled, the eggs being encased in a mass of jelly, or vis- 

 cid envelop, which is laid over twigs or other objects, but 

 does not adhere to them. The perch spawns early in 

 si)ring, and the eggs require from ten to fifteen days to 

 hatch ; the young swim from the start, and take food in 

 three to four days after hatching. 



The lish which I had this year spawned in an aquarium, 

 but only two lots were impregnated. My foreman, Mr. 

 0. H. Walters, watched them three nights to see the spawn- 

 ing of a perch, but did not chance to be there when it was 

 done ; for the wonder is how such a great mass comes from 

 so small a lish. None of my fishes were over seven inches 

 long, but they cast a si)awn that was larger than they were, 

 and the only way to account for it is that water is absorbed 

 and the mass swells. From what Mr. Walters tells me and 

 from the testimony of Professor Tyler, added to my own 

 observations among the nets, where the spawn is often laid, 

 I believe that this lish casts its sj)awn between midnight 

 and daylight. 



The Popskinny (old way of spelling this aboriginal name 

 was Popsquinnea, but it is now known to the boys of Green- 

 bush as "the island creek"), was an arm of the Hudson 

 River, or bayou, that made an island between Douw's Point 

 and Castleton, and in my early days was a famous fishing 

 ground for such coarse fish as perch, pike, black and rock 

 bass, cat-fish, sunfish, eels, etc., and as late as 1868 I took 

 a pike of ten and a half pounds in it, as an extract from 

 the Albany Express of March 31st, of that year, tells a 



