AMERICAN GAME. 



averaging nearly a pound each. It is almost always to 

 be had, from earliest spring to the commencement of 

 winter ; -and when poor Piscator has had all his lobsters* 

 taken by the sheeps-head, and utterly despairs of bass, 

 he can, at any time, and almost any where, in our river, 

 bait with the minnow and the worm, and retrieve some- 

 what from frowning fortune, by catching a mess of 

 perch. 



" In the spring, as soon as the ice has left the streams, 

 the perch begins running up our creeks to spawn. He 

 is then caught in them in great plenty.^ About the 

 middle of May, however, he seems to prefer the 

 Niagara's clear current, and almost entirely deserts the 

 Tonawanda, and other amber waters. You then find 

 him in the eddies, on the edge of swift ripples, and often 

 in the swift waters, watching for the minnow. As the 

 water-weeds- increase in height, he ensconces himself 

 among them, and, in mid-summer, comes out to seek his 

 prey only in the morning and toward night. ^He seems 

 to delight especially in a grassy bottom, and when the 

 black frost has cut down the tall water-weeds, and the 

 more delicate herbage that never attains the surface is 

 withered, he disappears until spring probably secluding 

 himself in the depths of the river. 



" The back fin of the perch is large, and armed with 

 strong spines. He is bold and ravenous. He will not 

 give way to the pike or to the black bass ; and though 

 * By lobsters the writer means the small fresh-water crayfish. 



