3o8 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



because: ( i j they can better endure high temperatures: (2; their 

 feeding habits enable them to secure food more easily; and (3) they 

 are less subject to infection by parasites." 



YelloiL' Perch. Bean says the yellow perch is found in lakes, 

 ponds and rivers and that it feeds upon small fishes, crustaceans, and 

 other animal matter. " Fry are available in ]^lay and June : finger- 

 Hngs from September to November. Plant in shallow parts of the 

 waters to be stocked." The few specimens examined by Forbes 

 fi88o) showed that the young less than an inch long had eaten 

 Entomostraca with a few insect larvae. Perch from about one to 

 two inches fed largely upon Entomostraca but had eaten a con- 

 siderable quantity of insect lar\'ae and insects. Still larger fish had 

 eaten nothing but insects in the aquatic stages: still other youthful 

 perch up to about four inches in length depended upon aquatic stages 

 of insects and small crustaceans. The most comprehensive account of 

 the perch is that of Pearse ('20), in which the youngest perch 

 examined (from about i 1/6 to about 2 3 10 inches long) are stated 

 to have fed upon aquatic forms of insects, entomostracans, small 

 amphipods, et cetera. 



Records in general indicate that the perch varies its diet accord- 

 ing to localitA', or rather according to the available food. It would 

 appear that the adult fish is almost omnivorous. It is a fish eater 

 of some voracity and capacity when fish that it can handle are avail- 

 able. The present writer has found perch gorged with young smelts, 

 and has known them to take adult smelts four or five inches long and 

 shiners of like size when used as trolling bait for salmon. They 

 have been observed to take small frogs used as live bait for black- 

 bass. 



Pikeperch. Apparently no study of the life history of this 

 important food and game fish has been made. According to Bean 

 the pikeperch prefers lakes and rivers with clear water, and with 

 rock, gravel, sand or hard clay bottom. It feeds upon minnows, 

 crawfish, and insects and their lan'ae. 



The fr\" are distributed in ^lay, within a few days after hatch- 

 ing. They may be planted on sandy or rock}- shoals in lakes and 

 their tributaries. In some waters, at least, the pikeperch ascends 

 streams to spawn in early spring. Since the young are planted so 

 soon after hatching it would appear a logical procedure to plant them 

 in the spa%\Tiing places. 



MiiskcUunge. Of the pikes only the muskellunge of Chautauqua 

 Lake is propagated by the State Conservation Commission. Bean 

 ( 'i6j says that it should be planted only in that lake and other 

 waters belonging to the Ohio basin, and that young fish may be 

 planted in !May and Tune near the shores of lakes. 



There are no records of the food and habits of the young 

 muskellunge. 



Smelt; Iceiish. Bean wrote: " This marine species ascends rivers 

 to spawn, and has been introduced or landlocked in Lake Champlain 



