442 Roosevelt Wild Life .liinals 



Perch of the Great Lakes and of many of our smaller lakes, rivers and other waters 

 is distinct specifically from the Blue Pike (Stisostedion glaucmn) of Lake Erie 

 and Lake Ontario. The Wall-eye is a fish that needs protection on account of its 

 desirability and the ease with which it is caught during the spawning time, when 

 it runs up creeks in large numbers and may be taken in quantities by poachers. 

 It is also easily taken by trap nets of the kind often used illegally in Oneida Lake. 

 Game protectors are continually searching for such nets in the lake, which when 

 found are destroyed by burning. Hankinson, on October 3, 1920, witnessed at 

 Maple Bay, Oneida Lake, the discovery of a poacher's trap net by a Game Pro- 

 tector and the lifting of this net from about ten feet of water. In the net were 

 fifteen large Pike Perch, measuring 12 to 20 inches in length. Besides these fish 

 there were two large Rock Bass, a Chain Pickerel {Esox iiiger) 20 inches in 

 length, 12 Common Bullheads {Amcinrus ncbulosus) and 8 or 10 large Common 

 Sunfish (Eupoiiiofis gibhosiis). 



Breeding Habits and Life History. The Yellow Pike Perch is a migratory 

 species, since the adults run up streams to spawn, but it is evident that it will lay 

 its eggs in lakes if prevented by weather or other causes from entering streams. 

 (Bean, '02, p. 399; Macdonald, '24, p. 98). Evermann and Latimer ('10, p. 134) 

 found the spawning grounds of this species in Lake-of-the-\\'oods, Minnesota, 

 to be gravel bottom near shore, along the whole shore line. This fish is known to 

 migrate from deep lake water, where it resides in winter, to the shallows of lakes, 

 in spring — even before the ice has left — and very soon enters streams. At Oneida 

 Lake it begins to run usually in early April. Bean ('13, p. 267) gives the spawn- 

 ing date for Scriba Creek at Constantia on Oneida Lake as about April 7. but 

 weather conditions produce many fluctuations, and in some seasons the fish (Id not 

 enter the streams at all, or do so in very small numbers (Macdonald. '24, p. 98). 

 No nest is prepared by the fish, but the eggs are dropped directly on the bottom in 

 from 3 to 10 feet of water (Goode, '03, p. 16). The fish do not run to head- 

 waters of streams but may spawn anywhere near the mouth where depth and other 

 conditions are favorable. Mr. J. D. Black informed us that the fish spawn in 

 Chittenango Creek, near Oneida Lake, and Hankinson witnessed the spawning act 

 at Constantia not far from the mouth of Scriba Creek. Figure 235 slinws the 

 spawning place, just below the weir crossing the stream. The presence of this 

 obstruction probably determined the spawning at this place. The water was about 

 three feet deep with a temperature of about 50° F, free of sediment and with a 

 moderately rapid current. The bottom was of sand and gravel : the width about 

 forty feet. The breeding fish could be seen in the .stream near the weir and often 

 about the boulders on the bottom. The males were smaller than the females, being 

 about 18 inches in length, rnul bad the Inwer, paired fins bordered anteridrlv \\ith 

 white, and the lower jnlie i.l the e;ui<lal fin white. The females were abmit tw.i 

 feet in length. They could be readily distinguished from the males l)y the indis- 

 tinctness of the white on the tip of the lower lobe of the caudal fin. .\ tyi>ical 

 specimen of each sex was given us by the hatchery men. These are preserved as 

 Collection No. 20S. The male mea.sures l/}i inches in total length .md the 

 female 23^ inches. The spawning act was ob.served by Hankinson several times 

 near tlie weir, in ribnut three feet of water and near tlie middle of tlie stream. 



