Yellow Perch; Ringed Perch 



bands on jaws, vomer, and palatines; no canine teeth; branchiostegais 

 7; gill-membranes separate; scales small, ctenoid; lateral line com- 

 plete; dorsal fins entirely separate; caudal emarginate; air-bladder 

 present; pyloric coeca 3. 



Three species known, all freshwater fishes of northern regions, 

 only one of them in America. 



Yellow Perch; Ringed Perch 



Perca flavescens (Mitchill) 



"I pray you, sir, give me some observations and directions con- 

 cerning the Pearch, for they say he is both a very good and a bold- 

 biting fish, and I would fain learne to fish for him." 



— The Complete Angler. 



The yellow perch is found in the eastern United States, chiefly 

 northward and eastward. Jt is abundant in the Great Lakes and in 

 the larger coastwise streams and lakes from Nova Scotia to North 

 Carolina; also in most of the small lakes in the upper Mississippi 

 Valley, especially in northern Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, and Iowa. It is found in some of the streams of this re- 

 gion, but it is by preference a lake fish. It is not known from the 

 Ohio River, nor from the lower Missouri. In most of the New Eng- 

 land lakes and those of New York it is an abundant and well- 

 known fish. 



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