8?8 ' EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ova, tbey wander over tbe breeding grounds of other fishes, and devour 

 every egg they can find. I have found lampreys in Crosswick's Creek 

 iu the month of May, gathering up the eggs from sun-fish's nests ; and 

 several times, when at the shad fisheries, I have taken small lampreys 

 — from 5 to 7 iuches iu length — that were attached to shad, with their 

 sucking discs (mouth) firmly closed on the vaginal orifice, through which 

 they were sucking the eggs. 



Investigations of an arcbseological character have led me to unearth 

 a vast number of Indian relics, as you know. In the prosecution of this 

 work, I have found two quite extensive fresh-water shell-heaps or 

 kjokkenmoddings. Bones of water-birds and our common fishes were, in 

 each case, noticeably abundant ; and from the marked abundance of 

 very large bones of many of our fishes, as the sturgeon, gar, rock fish, 

 and cat-fish, I am satisfied that, excepting the sturgeon, individuals of 

 a larger size than ever occur now were quite abundant. This is the 

 " supposed change " to which I refer in a previous paragraph. 



In the accompanying pages, I have given you, in some detail, my ob- 

 servations on the habits of certain fishes. 



Trusting you will pardon many defects of omission and commission, 

 I remain, very truly, yours, 



CHAS. C. ABBOTT. 



Prof. S. F. Baird, 



United States Commissioner. 



2. — The Yellow Perch, Perca Jiavescens, (Mitch.) 



This very abundant species is known throughout the State only as the 

 "yellow perch." 



So far as I have been able to follow it this fish remains in the stream in 

 which it was hatched throughout that year, and indeed for many years ; 

 the exception being that small perch will seek larger streams as they 

 reach adult size if it happens that a gravid perch has entered a smaller 

 from a larger stream to deposit its spawn. This quite frequently occurs. 

 Thus many perch leave the Delaware Eiver, and seeking out suitable 

 localities in the smaller creeks that have an uninterrupted outlet, they 

 deposit in these smaller streams their ova. 



The yellow perch in the Delaware and such of its tributaries as I have 

 examined is strictly resident, and can scarcely be said to be more abun- 

 dant at one season than another, although iu winter and the early weeks 

 of spring they are more difficult to catch. 



In the Delaware Eiver I believe the yellow perch to be less abun- 

 dant — except during the winter — than the rock fish {Roccus Uncatus) or 

 the white perch (Morone americana); but iu the tributaries of the river, 

 as Crosswick's Creek, (Burlington County,) and in many mill-streams 

 not having uninterrupted outlets, they are more abundant than the two 

 species above mentioned. It is, in fact, somewhat difficult to determine 



