426 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



pounds, was noted for his success in Crappie-fishing. He 

 would have his large flat towed to a tree; when, tied to a 

 limb, he would settle himself for the day on a pillow placed 

 in a large split-bottom chair. Hauling his live-box and min- 

 now-pail alongside, he would bait two hooks attached to a 

 strong line, using a weak snell, so that in case the hook 

 should foul, he could break it loose. He used a float and 

 short, stout bamboo rod, and, shaking the bushes a little, 

 'to stir up the fish,' would select an opening and carefully 

 drop on the minnow, two feet below the surface, pass the 

 end of the rods through rings in the side of the boat, light his 

 pipe, and wait for something to happen. It was not long; 

 and after the fun began, it was the same monotonous lifting 

 out of fish, and dropping them into the live-box all the day 

 long, and was continued on the next, until he had brought 

 to creel over three hundred. 



"I have always associated in my mind the Crappie, and 

 the love of ease and quiet of our old French inhabitants. 

 Nothing could more truly represent contentment and ease 

 than the picture of this simple-minded old gentleman on his 

 annual Crappie fish at King's Lake." 



THE yellow perch Pcrca flavescens (Mitchill). 



Description. Body oblong, compressed, mouth moderate, the 

 maxillary not quite reaching to orbit; lower jaw a little the 

 longest; eye moderate, 4 1-2 to 5-in. head; top of head naked, 

 the bones rough behind; cheeks with rather large scales, well 

 imbricated; opercle naked and with radiating striae, of which 

 the uppermost forms a long, flat spine, below which seven 

 or eight striae end in sharp teeth; preopercle strongly serrate, 

 the lower serrae hooked forward, gill-rakers comparatively 

 short, in length about equal to the diameter of the pupil; 

 pseudobranchiae very small; scales rather small, 55 to 62 in 

 the lateral line; first dorsal spine inserted above base of pec- 

 torals; head 3 1-2 in. length, depth 3 3-4; fin-rays D. XIII I, 

 13; A. II, 8. Color dark-olive above; sides more or less 

 brassy-yellow; belly white; about six irregular, dark olive bars 

 on sides; lower fins clear, orange, sometimes red; second 

 dorsal and caudal yellowish olive, somewhat dusky tinged; first 



