Catalogue of the Fishes of Connecticut. 57 



through which these animals move, serves greatly to conceal their 

 numbers, as well as their habits, from our view, and thus retard 

 our progress in their science. 



My object in this, as in the preceding classes, already furnished 

 the Society, has been to insert the name of no species, even though 

 in adjoining States, unless strong probability indicated its visits to 

 our waters ; and never then, unless notice of these circumstances 

 is subjoined, or made in the note appended. 



It is herewith respectfully submitted to the Society, by, dear 

 sir, your sincere friend and servant, James H. Linsley. 



Elmwood Place, Stratford, Dec. 16, 1843. 



Class IV. Fishes. 



Sub-class I. Bony Fishes. 



Section 1. Pectinibranchii. 



Order I. Spine-Rayed, 



Family Perddce,. 



*1. Perca flavescens, Mitchill, Yellow Perch, Hartford and 

 Stonington. 



*2. Perca granulata, Cuvier, Rough-head Yellow Perch, Ca- 

 naan. 



*1. AH the large streams near Hartford, (writes Mr. Ayres,) afford this species 

 of yelloiD perch. 



*2. 1 obtained many beautiful specimens of the rough-head perch by hook and 

 line, in a stream near " Our House," in Canaan, Litchfield County, in August last. 

 It has recently become a question with Dr. Storer, one of our most distinguished 

 ichthyologists, whether this and the preceding species are not identical, or one and 

 the same, although they have long been considered distinct. 



The Perca acuta, the gracilis, and the serrato- granulata of Dekay, or as adopted 

 by him, I suppose are justly considered very doubtful species, but I found in the 

 ponds of Salisbury immense quantities of a perch answering to the description of 

 the true Jlavescens. There is a great similarity in the markings or nomber of bars 

 of this, and the granulata. The fin rays are the same in number, except the anal 

 fin of this contains two more rays. The head is much more acute, and the fish 

 more slender, and the back at the first dorsal invariably more arched, and the col- 

 ors in all the great numbers I saw, were much lighter than any individual taken 

 in Canaan, which is the true granulata. Dr. Dekay's figure 1, of his late Report 

 on the Fishes of New York, which represents the flavescens, affords a good represen- 

 tation of this fish, except his figure is throughout too highly colored. I have sent 

 specimens of both to Dr. Storer, and though he is at present undecided as regards 

 their identity, he thinks this Mitchill's " yellow perch." As their localities are 

 only four to five miles asunder, it appears to me their shape (and the much lighter 

 coloring of this) being always so perfectly dissimilar, they can by no means be the 

 same fish, but at least distinct and constant varieties, if not different species. Fu- 



Vol. xLvii, No. 1.— April-June, 1844. 8 



