4 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
that the proportion of males was as one to fifty. VonSiebold found one-third 
males at Munich, and Manley in England one-tenth. It would be well 
worth while for American anglers to continue these observations, as well 
as to make some new counts of the number of eggs. The only reliable 
recent enumerations appear to be those made by Buckland in 1868. He 
found 127,240 eggs in a fish of 2 pounds 11 ounces, and 155,620 in one 
of 3 pounds 2 ounces. Lacepede put the figure at 1,000,000, Bloch at 
28,000, and Abbott at 8,000. 
The eggs are from 2 to 2V2 mm. in diameter, or about as large as 
poppy seeds. They are of the adhesive class, and cling together in 
beautifully interlaced bands, like pearl necklaces, five or six feet long 
and an inch or two in width. These glutinous masses adhere to twigs and 
stones in shallow water, and are devoured by birds and all kinds of 
aquatic animals. The eggs begin to expand soon after fertilization. At 
a temperature of 59 0 , F. Malm hatched some eggs in four days and nine 
hours; at the end of a week or ten days after the eggs were laid, Abbott 
frequently found minute Yellow Perch, associated with little Sun-fish, 
tangled in among the water plants, active as their strength permitted, and 
darting voraciously at almost invisible specks, that seemed to serve them 
for food. The little perchettes grow very fast, and in a year or two they 
have reached maturity. Edward Jesse observed a fish three inches long 
which was full of spawn. 
Perch rarely exceed a pound or two in weight. “ Une Perche de deux 
kilogrammes est un phenix tres-rare,” says De la Blanchere. Some large 
ones are on record. An individual taken in Delaware Bay, by Abbott, 
weighed four and one-quarter pounds. In England three-pounders are 
thought large ; but Pennant mentions one of nine pounds, taken in the 
Serpentine in Hyde Park. Gunther puts the limit at four pounds, but 
Seeley states that in Russia, in Lake Seligher they reach eight pounds. 
The artificial propagation of the Perch was accomplished as early as 
1856 by Malm, a Swedish naturalist, and is said to have beeen repeated 
in this country. Many ponds have been stocked with grown fish, 
Dr. S. L. Mitchill transplanted them from Ronkonkoma Pond in Suffolk 
County to Success Pond in Queens County, N. Y. The species is very 
properly excluded from waters in which trout and carp are to be cultivated. 
It is said that poachers often revenge their grievances by stocking trout 
ponds with Perch. They have been known to deposit their eggs in 
aquarium tanks, where, with care, they will doubtless hatch their young. 
