THE PERCH FAMILY. 109 



THE SHORT STRIPED BASS. 



I regret tliat I have no engraving or ichthyological account 

 of this pretty fish, but if the reader will imagine our White 

 Perch with stripes on its sides resembling those of the Rock- 

 fish, though not so many of them, he will have this Bass in 

 his mind's eye. 



There is also a variety called the " Broken Striped Bass," 

 which I have no doubt is of the same species ; for we frequently 

 find individual cases in which the stripes on the Rockfish are 

 not continuous, but irregular and broken. 



The Short Striped Bass of both of these varieties are found 

 frequently in great abundance in Lakes Ponchartrain and 

 Borgne, and along the Gulf coast, where fresh-water bayous 

 and rivers come in. They are most abundant in Lake Pon- 

 chartrain when the Mississippi is high, and discharges some 

 of its water by crevasses or smaller channels into that lake. 

 I have taken fifteen pounds of them before breakfast, off the 

 pier of the New Orleans and Ponchartrain Railroad. With 

 a neat rod, a float, and small hooks, they afford fine sport. 

 The best baits are shrimp, the head and legs taken off, and 

 the hooks baited with only the white meat of the body. They 

 are not inferior to the White Perch of this latitude, and 

 resemble them much in flavor and firmness of flesh. 



The Creoles of Louisiana sometimes call these fish "Pattisa ;" 

 this name, however, is applied by them indiscriminately to 

 any small pan-fish. They are taken from seven to twelve 

 inches in length, and sometimes longer ; though nine inches 

 is a good average size. 



