OUR HERITAGE OF THE FRESH WATERS 
109 
adapted, and it is not given to the eating of other 
fishes. 
It is not a popular angler’s fish, but is often 
taken with Crayfish bait, and the young are better 
eating than the adults. The net fisheries take the 
bulk of those marketed. In the North it is often 
called Sheepshead, while in Louisiana it is best 
known as Gaspergou. 
The Fresh-water Drum makes drumming or 
grunting sounds not unlike those made by the 
Sea Drum, and this is the meaning of its specific 
name, grunniens. 
The noises made by Drums, Croakers, and other 
sound-producing fishes are accomplished by muscles 
drawn across the air bladder, by the grinding of 
their blunt teeth, and in other ways, fishes having 
no real vocal organs. 
The ivorylike ear bones, or otoliths, of this fish 
are popularly known as “lucky-stones,” a fancy 
originating in a marking resembling the letter L. 
The Fresh-water Drum has proved to be a hardy 
fish in the tanks of aquariums, where it gets little 
of its natural food. 
YELLOW PERCH (Perea flavescens) 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page 12^ 
The Yellow Perch is one of our best-known 
fresh-water fishes, being abundant throughout the 
Northern and Eastern States, especially in lakes 
and ponds. On the Atlantic slope it extends some¬ 
what farther south than in the Mississippi Valley, 
where it is confined to States bordering on the 
Great Lakes. 
In the North it extends from Nova Scotia and 
Quebec westward to Minnesota. 
The market catch by nets in the Great Lakes 
sometimes exceeds 9,000,000 pounds a year, while 
anglers in towns along the Lakes take great numbers 
and find sport in doing so. The catch by anglers 
in smaller lakes and ponds everywhere is very 
large. 
The Yellow Perch comes as near to being every¬ 
body’s fish as any other and but little art is necessary 
in taking it. It is ready to sample all the baits of 
the amateur and even responds to baits let down 
through the ice in winter, when many other fishes 
are sluggish. The expert takes it both with artificial 
fly and trolling spoon. 
As a food-fish, there is none of better flavor 
among the commoner kinds. It is easily identified 
by its broad cross-bands of black, as no other 
native fresh-water fish wears the same combination 
of black and gold. 
Like other fishes of extended range, it has several 
names, viz., Yellow Perch, Ringed Perch, Raccoon 
Perch, Red Perch or Striped Perch, according to 
locality. Its length may be as much as 14 inches 
and its weight about three pounds, but such sizes 
are unusual. 
The Yellow Perch is one of the easiest fishes to 
introduce into new waters. The eggs are extruded 
in zigzag-shaped bands, which, by the rapid absorp¬ 
tion of water, became large masses, seen along the 
shores in shallow water. Employees of the 
Aquarium gather such masses in the ponds of Long 
Island in March and April. They are hatched 
indoors as a springtime fish-cultural exhibit, the 
young fry being placed in local streams and 
ponds. 
The egg masses may be found at any time after 
the ice disappears, according to the latitude. 
Yellow Perch have been kept ii years in cap¬ 
tivity on no other food than fish purchased in the 
markets, although its natural live foods include 
practically all the smaller forms of fresh-water 
life. 
The Yellow Perch runs in schools and frequents 
moderate depths. It is a difficult fish to dress 
because the scales cling so tightly to the flesh. 
PIKE-PERCH (Stizostedion vitreum) and 
SAUGER (Stizostedion canadense) 
(For illustration see Color Plate, page 12^) 
The Pike-perch, perhaps better known as Wall¬ 
eyed Pike, ranks next to the Whitefishes and the 
Lake Trout in quality and commercial importance 
among the fishes of the Great Lakes, where the 
market catch in 1917 amounted to 4,500,000 
pounds. 
While the average weight of this fish in the 
Great Lakes is less than 10 pounds, it occasionally 
reaches a weight of 25 pounds and a length of 
three feet. In other northern waters the average 
is less than five pounds. The young are usually 
known as Blue Pike. 
Although the Pike-perch inhabits clear waters 
everywhere in its range, it is a fish of the lakes 
rather than the rivers. It is found from Lake 
Champlain westward to Minnesota, in the interior 
lakes of New York, and in the Mississippi Valley, 
but through fish-culture operations its habitat has 
been greatly extended. Its range also extends well 
into British America. 
Perhaps no fish lends itself better to artificial 
propagation; more than 300,000,000 were liberated 
from Federal hatcheries on the Great Lakes in 
1921. A few millions are hatched annually in the 
Aquarium, where the process of incubation in glass 
jars always attracts the attention of visitors. As 
handled in the fish hatcheries, a large specimen 
may yield 300,000 eggs. 
The Pike-perch belongs to the family of Perches, 
although its form is suggestive of the Pikes. 
While it is regarded in the markets as one of 
the best of our food-fishes and great numbers are 
taken in the net fisheries, it is highly appreciated 
as a game fish. The angler does not find it a 
difficult fish to catch and a large one will resist 
like a good-sized Pickerel. 
The Sauger, also called Sand Pike, is a little 
brother to the Pike-perch, resembling it in general 
appearance, but in size does not average more 
than a quarter of its weight. It has a smaller eye, 
a more pointed head, and a lighter coloration. It 
has much the same geographic distribution. 
The Sauger is a good food and game fish, taken 
in trolling and casting both with bait and lure. 
In some localities great numbers are taken with 
seines. 
COMMON EEL (Anguilla rostrata) 
{For illustration see Color Plate, page 126) 
The annual catch of Eels for market along the 
Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida exceeds 
3,000,000 pounds and is worth $2^0,000. 
Recently three barges, each more than 100 feet 
long and 12 feet wide, arrived at New York from 
Quebec with 165,000 pounds of live Eels. They 
were towed by way of the St. Lawrence River, 
Lake Champlain, and Hudson River and were 13 
days in transit. The barges are virtually well- 
boats, or live cars, the bottoms consisting of heavy 
