PERCIDJE. 187 



AOANTHOPTERYGII. PERCID.E. 



THE AMERICAN* YELLOW PEARCH. 



Perca Flavcscens; Mitchil. 



THIS is a very common fish, widely diffused, with small variation 

 of size, shape, form and color, through all the inland fresh waters of 

 the whole United States, ranging through all the lakes and rivers of 

 the country from the eastern part of Maine to the waters of the Ohio, 

 into which it has gained access through the Ohio Canal, and whence 

 it will undoubtedly ere long make its way into the Mississippi. There 

 are several subordinate varieties of this fish, which differ in size, color, 

 and slightly also in the number of fin rays, in different waters, and 

 these have been created into distinct species, under the titles of the 

 Rough Yellow Pearch, Perca Cerrato Granulata ; the Rough- 

 headed Yellow Peareh, Perca Granulata ; the Sharp-nosed Yellow 

 Pearch, Perca Acuta ; the Slender Yellow Pearch, Perca Gracilis ; 

 and the White Pearch, Perca Pallida. It does not, however, appear 

 that these distinctions are sufficiently broad or permanent to justify 

 this arrangement ; and it is now generally held that there is but one 

 spacies of true fresh-water Pearch in the United States, and that the 

 forms which have been designated under the above titles are mere 

 accidental varieties, similar to those which have been previously 

 noticed of the common Trout. Originally the Yellow Pearch was a 



