72 



These fishes must have constituted in the neighborhood of four 

 fiftlis of the individuals in the sloughs and lakes outside the 

 levee. A number of them, notably the hickory shad and the red- 

 mouthed buffalo, occurred there in prodigious numbers. As a 

 rule, these species became gradually less and less common as one 

 went north and away from the river, and accompanying this 

 diminution in the numbers of river fishes was a gradual increase 

 in the numbers of pond fishes. There was, in fact, an overlapping 

 of the two groups in the bottom-land, the river fishes being most 

 abundant in the sloughs near the river, and the pond fishes, within 

 the levee and to the northward. Still, several river fishes were 

 very common inside the levee. Evidently not all of the river 

 fishes taken in the sloughs breed there. Such species as the 

 morgan catfish (Leptops), the shovel fish, the minnows, and the 

 red-spotted sunfish {Lepomis hiimilis) had probabl}' wandered 

 here from the river during high water ^nd had been confined when 

 the water became lower. Most of the remaining river fishes had, 

 I think, been spawned on the flooded bottoms. The abundant young 

 of gars, buffalo, carp, hickory shad, pike perch, and white bass in 

 the temporary pools are evidence of this. 



Family SciiENiD.E. 



Sheepshead, White Perch {Aplodinotus grunniens, 'Rat). 



The young of this fish, varying from 2.50 inches to 4.50 inches in 

 length, were frequent in most of the sloughs and lakes. These are, in 

 all probability, the young of the season. If smaller ones existed in 

 the sloughs, they must certainly have been captured in the seine 

 used by the Fish Commission (a quarter-inch mesh). This species 

 was more abundant inside the levee than in the pools on the lower 

 part of the bottom-land, and was especially common in inlets 

 along the lower part of Bear Creek and in Goose Lake. On a 

 small sand bar in Bear Creek, at the mouth of Harkness Slough, 

 more were taken than at any other one place. No specimens 

 longer than 4.50 inches were taken from the sloughs and pools, so 

 far as I know. In the bay and river, large ones were very com- 

 mon; and probably half of the fishes taken during August 

 with hook-and-line from barges and river banks were of this 

 sj)ecies. It seems quite at home in the swiftest current of the 

 river, and was caught with minnow bait from banks upon which 

 the current strikes with a force which it would seem no animal 

 could withstand. The largest example seen would have weighed 

 about one pound. The local name for the fish is perch; and it is 

 considered one of the best of food fishes. 



Localities: Ballard Slough, Harkness Slough, Bear Creek, Goose 

 Lake, Quincy Bay, Claus Lake, Willow Slough, Lily Lake, Broad 

 Lake, Wood Slough, Mississippi River. 



