204 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



up a hand-net full of the fry. They are seldom found 

 at least not in large numbers above the head of tide until 

 they have attained some size ; and their pushing, predatory 

 instinct must induce them to ascend so far only for feed. 

 This species is rare in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico 

 or the rivers and bays connecting with it. 



THE WHITE PERCH (Labrax pallidus). This is a beau- 

 tiful fish ; silvery bright in tidal rivers, and on open rocky 

 or sandy bottoms ; of greenish or golden hue where it lives 

 amongst grass and aquatic weeds; and of darker tint 

 when it inhabits discolored waters, and muddy or peaty 

 bottoms. Southward, in tidal streams, it may be enume- 

 rated with anadromous fishes. In the Middle and Eastern 

 States it is not unfrequently found in fresh-water lakelets 

 or ponds having no communication with salt water. At the 

 south its average size is larger than at the north ; and it is 

 with surprise that we find northern ichthyologists underrat- 

 ing it in this particular, and fish commissioners alluding to 

 it as a fish unworthy of their consideration for culture. 



A white perch of twelve inches will weigh nearly a 

 pound. I have taken them of this size in numbers in the 

 Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which in its course occu- 

 pies a considerable length of an old mill-pond and St. 

 George's creek. These fish breed here in the coves, and 

 the canal no doubt receives fresh accessions from the Dela- 

 ware through the locks* at Delaware City. South of 



* A singular fact, I am credibly informed, is noticed here 

 every spring. The alewives, or herrings, as we term them, collect 



