THE PERCH. 



147 



and enthusiastic follower of Walton, taken from the Buffalo 

 Commercial Advertiser, will, though rather out of order in 

 this place, be fully appreciated by the perch angler. 



" The Yellow Perch. This beautiful and active fish is 

 almost omnipresent in the fresh waters of the Northern 

 States. There are probably two distinct but similar species 

 in our country, blended together under this common name. 

 The perch of New England differs from ours principally in the 

 shape of the head. In the Saratoga Lake, Owasco Lake, Cayu- 

 ga Outlet, the Flats of Lake Huron, and many other localities, 

 the perch is larger than with us, frequently weighing three 

 pounds. Among the perch of our * streams and river, a half 

 pounder is a very portly citizen though on a few particular bars 

 they are sometimes taken in considerable numbers, averaging 

 nearly a pound each. It is almost always to be hail, 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 somewhat 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 

 almo.^ entirely deserts the Tonawanda, and other amber 

 waters. You then find him in the eddies, on the edge oi 

 swift ripples, and often in the swift waters, watching for the 

 minnow. As the water weeds increase in height, he en- 

 sconces himself among them, and, in mid-summer, comes out 

 to seek his prey only in the morning and towards night. Ho 

 seems to delight especially in a grassy bottom, and when the 

 blnrk frost has cut down the tall water-weeds, and the more 

 delicate herbage that never attains the surface is withered, he 



