314 AMERICAN GAME, 
averaging nearly a pound each. It is almost always to 
be had, from earliest spring to the commencement of 
winter; and when poor Piscator has had all his lobsters* 
taken by the sheeps-head, and utterly despairs of bass, 
he can, at any time, and almost any where, in our river, 
bait with the minnow and the worm, and retrieve some- 
what from frowning fortune, by catching a, mess of 
perch. 
“Tn the spring, as soon as the ice has left the streams, 
the perch: begins running up our creeks to spawn. He 
is then caught in them in great plenty. About the 
middle of May, however, he seems to prefer the 
Niagara’s clear current, and almost entirely deserts the 
Tonawanda, and other amber waters. You then find 
him in the eddies, on the edge of swift ripples, and often 
in the swift waters, watching for the minnow. As the 
-water-weeds increase in height, he ensconces himself 
among them, and, in mid-summer, comes out to seek his 
prey only in the morning and toward night. He seems 
to delight especially in a grassy bottom, and when the 
black frost has cut down the tall water-weeds, and the 
more delicate herbage that never attains the surface is 
withered, he disappears until spring—probably secluding 
himself in the depths of the river. 
“The back fin of the perch is large, and armed with 
strong spines. He is bold and ravenous. He will not 
give way to the pike or to the black bass; and though 
* By lobsters the writer means the small fresh-water crayfish. 
