FIELD AND FOREST. 



Notes on the Habits of the Yellow Perch. 



BY DR. C. C. ABBOTT, TRENTON, N. J. 



So far as I have been able to follow it, this fish, Perca flavescens, 

 remains in the stream in which it was hatched, throughout the year, 

 and indeed, for many years; the exception being, that small perch will 

 seek larger streams as they reach adult size, if it happens that a gravid 

 perch has entered a smaller from a larger stream, to deposit its spawn. 

 They can scarcely be said to be more abundant at one season than an- 

 other, although in winter they are more difficult to catch. 



I have no means of determining the maximum size of the yellow-perch. 

 A specimen caught in the Delaware River at Bordentown, New Jersey, 

 in May, 1865, weighed 4 pounds, 3^ ounces, and I have fre- 

 quently met with them weighing ij4 to 2 pounds. An average sized 

 adult yellow perch, as found in the Delaware River, may be said to be 

 9 inches in length, and to weigh six to eight ounces. The young perch 

 at six months old, (by November 15th of their first year,) are about 2)^ 

 inches long. Of their subsequent growth I have not been able to de- 

 termine anything positively, but believe it to be rapid. It probably 

 varies with the abundance or comparative absence of "live" food, as 

 in some ponds where cyprinoids are not abundant the perch seems 

 never to attain a large size. 



Early in May the sexes go in pairs to cool waters, having some cur- 

 rent, and a sandy or pebbly bed, with a moderate amount of vegetation, 

 {Myriafolium o/?fusumY>Tiefevved), and the ova are deposited on the bed 

 of the stream, quite near the shore. The milt is deposited immediate- 

 ly after, the two fishes being side by side while the process is going on. 

 The temperature of the water is about 55° Far. 



The eggs when extruded sink to the bottom of the "nest" in masses, 

 and there remain, adhering to the pebbles or sand until hatched, and 

 the ordinary floAv of the water does not seem to disturb them; although 

 they have no protection from the current other than being in a shallow 

 basin made by the female fish with her abdominal fins. Both sexes 

 immediately quit the nest, and the eggs are not again disturbed by them, 

 and certainly are not subsequently visited. The eggs, numbering about 

 8000, are hatched at the end of four or five days, at most, or at least a 

 good proportion are, for at the end of a week or ten days I have found 



