468 Fisurxe iy AMERICAN WATERS. 
CHAPTER IV. 
FRESH-WATER FISHES OF THE SOUTH. 
SECTION FIRST. 
Wuite Percnu, oF Misstssipri. 
Tus fish was taken at the head waters of the Chickasaw 
River, Mississippi, by My. B. F. Moore, Jun., of Meridian, Mis- 
sissippi, who has done me the favor to furnish the Southern 
trout (channel cat); and at his instance Colonel James F. 
Taylor, of Raleigh, North Carolina, furnished me with the ex- 
cellent drawing and description of the chub-robin, one of the 
gamiest small fishes of any water. 
The white perch of the South is the most beautiful fish of 
the numerous Percide tribes. It inhabits ponds and run- 
ning streams; loves eddies and deep holes, schooling in fall 
near a shaded bank or brush in the stream. It bites almost 
exclusively the minnow, preferring a live one, but was never 
known to bite a worm. It bites throughout spring and sum- 
mer, and is the latest biting fish in autumn. Its best months 
for biting are October and November, though it is a very 
wary biter, seldom sinking the float—a decided nibbler, bites 
like a minnow, while swimming, and tows the cork along on 
the surface of the water. Its mouth is very tender, and it 
is difficult to land, for the hook often parts from its paper 
