AMERICAN FISHES. 
THE YELLOW PERCH. 
Perca fluviatilis, 
It is a true fish, such as the angler loves to put into his basket or hang on top of his 
willow twig on shady afternoons, along the banks of the streams. 
THOREAU, Walden Pond. 
HE PERCH isa member of avery ancient race. A closely related 
form has been found fossil in the tertiary deposits of Giningen, and 
its wide distribution throughout the northern hemisphere testifies to its 
existence in its present form at a remote period. Additional evidence of 
the antiquity of the species is found in the fact that its common names 
are much the same in many European languages which diverged from a 
common stock, thousands of years back in history. 
The Perch is found almost everywhere in Europe, though it is said to be 
rare in the north of Scotland. It ranges to Lapland and Siberia, and 
ascends the slopes of the Alps to the height of more than 4ooo feet. It 
inhabits the sea of Azov, and the brackish waters of the Caspian and 
Baltic, and is everywhere a well-known and useful species. 
In America it exists in all the waters of the Atlantic slope, from Labra- 
dor to Georgia, throughout the Great Lake region, and in the upper part 
t 
