50 SEA PERCH. 



The Gunner, or Sea Perch. 



The cunner, or nipper (so called from tlieir nip- 

 ping bite) is a sea fish found all along the Atlantic 

 coast, from Delaware Bay to- Newfoundland. They 

 are caught most plentifully near rocky shores, and 

 are supposed to feed chiefly on Crustacea. They are 

 very annoying to the fisher for^tautog or rock cod, as 

 they swarm plentifully and take off with great readi- 

 ness the bait intended for larger prey. They make, 

 however, an excellent and favorite pan fish, and there 

 are two or three old fishermen at Swampscott who 

 devote themselves entirely to catching dinners in the 

 cunner season, that is, from the middle of June to 

 the middle of September, and selling them in the 

 Boston market. They are from five inches to two 

 feet in length, and in color no two are exactly alike. 

 The general color is black mixed with brown, with 

 faint transverse bars of an uncertain dusky hue. 

 Large ones sometimes show a light orange tint 

 throughout the whole body, with the head and gill- 

 cover of a chocolate color mixed with light blue, and 

 with blue fins. \ I have seen specimens thirteen 

 inches in length, weighing a pound, so black as to 

 be hardly distinguishable at the first glance from the 

 f autog or black-fish, while others, equally large, were 

 throughout of a vivid light yellow, varied with spots 

 and bars of shades of the same color. They are 

 fished for with the usual black-fish tackle, and clam 

 bait. In fact they will bite at any bait used in fish- 

 ing sea fish. 



