THE BLITEFISH AND SPANISH MACKEREL 



387 



worse thing in the fishing hne than a good string 

 of golden-yellow and umber-brown Perch. When 

 crisply and daintily fried in a small modicum 



Photo, by E. F. Keller. 



BLUE AND YELLOW .4.NGEL-FISH. 



Hol-a-can'thus cil-i-ar'it<, a tropical species, about 1.5 Indies in 

 length, w^hich is one of the most beautiful fislies in the world. It 

 represents the Family of Scaly-Finned Fishes, Chae-to-don'ti-dae. 



of meal, and laid on hissing from the spider, they 

 are "pan-fish" worth while; and they make up 

 in delicacy and richness of flavor all that they 

 lack in size. Except in famine times, an ounce 

 of Yellow Perch is worth a pound of pike, carp 

 or catfish. 



Like egg-rolling rights on the White 

 House lawn every Mayday, this neat 

 little fish belongs to the small citizen ; 

 but in the great lakes and a few other 

 places it is so numerous and so large, 

 that it takes rank as a desirable mar- 

 ket fish. It is at home in the north- 

 eastern quarter of the United States, 

 north of the Ohio and Missouri valleys 

 from Maine to Iowa and Minnesota. 

 In most of the lakes, ponds and 

 fresh-water bays of New England 

 generally it is fairly abundant. Its 

 rule of life is to bite at everything 

 that is offered at the end of a hne-— 

 angle-worm, minnow, grasshopper, 

 frog-leg, trolling spoon, and fly, either natural or 

 hand-made. The size of this fish varies from 

 half a pound to three pounds, with a possible 



4-|; and in length it measures from 7 to 12 

 inches. 



The Yellow Pike-Perch' is frequently called 

 the Yellow "Pike" and Wall-Eyed 

 "Pike"; but it is not a real pike at 

 all. The real pike is a blood brother 

 to the muskallunge. The Pike- 

 Perches have two prominent dorsal 

 fins, the real pikes only one. 



Twice in trolling with hand-lines 

 I have caught my spoon full of eel- 

 grass. On hauling in to clear the 

 tackle, each time the eel-grass turned 

 out to be an eight-pound Yellow 

 Pike-Perch. The first one came into 

 the boat like a bunch of wet weeds. 

 The second finally roused to a reahz- 

 ing sense of its position, and made 

 cjuite a demonstration, but chiefly 

 in the boat, endeavoring to climb 

 out. 



In the eastern United States, this is 



a northern fish that goes southward 



almost to the Gulf States. It is 



abundant in Lakes Ontario, Erie and 



Huron, and in many of the bays and 



larger streams attached to them, in which the 



water is clear, and the bottom of sand and 



gravel. By very many persons this fish is well 



liked as a food fish, and immense numbers 



are propagated every year. In 1900 the United 





"%±: 



"feXrx 



- --■ _ _^^^- 



TOE ELUBFISH. 



States Bureau of Fisheries distributed, of this 

 species, 89,700,000 eggs and live fish. 

 ' Sti-zos-ted'i-on vit're-um. 



