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494 
FOREST AND STREAM 
OCTOBER, 1917 
Improve Your Shooting 
F ORGET September’s sultry days! Banish dull 
care! Get out in the open and get some real fun. 
Match your gunskill against the frisky clay targets 
thrown from a 
Hand Trap 
Improve your marksmanship. Learn how to handle 
and use a gun. Every man and every woman should 
know how to shoot and hit what they shoot at. 
Here is a Special Offer 
Wilmington, Delaware 
For the time being the Du Pont Hand Trap and 100 clay 
pigeons (packed in a small keg) are being 
offered complete for $5.00—a real joy pack¬ 
age. This is your opportunity to get the 
complete outfit. Go to your nearest 
dealer and get one. If he can’t supply 
you, we’ll send it to you direct on 
receipt of price. 
Order today and zvrite for book¬ 
let, The Sport Alluring No. z, 
E.I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO. 
“NESSMUK” HUNTING KNIFE 
WITH LEATHER SHEATH 
Together with Full Years Subscription to 
Forest and Stream 
$ 2.00 
Supply Limited :: No Extra Charge for Canadian Orders 
The^ White Perch 
As a Game Fish 
By LEONARD HULIT 
I N reviewing salt water game fishes it 
would be an act of injustice to pass by 
the subject of this sketch. While many 
there are who have always looked upon it 
as a fresh water species, such is not the 
case, and it does not belong in the cate¬ 
gory of fresh water fishes. While it will 
live and thrive in fresh water lakes and 
ponds its true home is in salt water bays, 
estuaries and rivers. Besides it spends 
considerable of its time in the open ocean, 
and is a congener of the Herring passing 
most of the early Spring months with- that 
prolific species. Just why it should select 
the Herring as an intimate associate is not 
easily accounted for as their habits in the 
main are entirely dissimilar save that of 
very early Spring movements along the 
coast. That their association is most inti¬ 
mate is shown from the fact of their being 
taken together in nets in prodigious num¬ 
bers in many of our bays and rivers, and 
it is well known that they are continually 
together at the headwaters of all streams 
where they perform their functions of re¬ 
production at the same time, as the Herr¬ 
ing always seek fresh water for this pur¬ 
pose. It is at such times that this pecu¬ 
liarity of the Perch can best be studied. 
I have stood at the head waters of 
streams, and seen myriads of Herring pass 
over the shallows and on to the deep pools 
and with them invariably went the White 
Perch. As they have the well authenti¬ 
cated habit of feeding on the deposited 
spawn of other fish it may be that their 
affiliation with the Herring at this par¬ 
ticular season may be for selfish reasons. 
Be that as it may; they are always with 
them in their early coastwise runs, but 
they do not pass back with them to the 
sea, preferring rather to pass their time 
at the heads of the streams until late in 
Autumn, as I have taken them well into 
November. They apparently remain in 
such localities to secure the food which is 
suitable for their sustenance, and may be 
found hovering around old spiles or bridge 
abutments and in the vicinity of lily pads, 
always active and ready to take the hook 
if properly presented. The Perch family 
is as old as man’s records; and indeed, 
fossil remains have been found which es¬ 
tablish the fact that long before civiliza¬ 
tion began this fish was a part of the 
fauna of the universe. 
While there are several varieties of 
Perch known in Europe, this member ac¬ 
cording to the best authorities appears to 
be entirely unknown there and seems to be 
confined to the Atlantic seaboard of the 
United States. As this fish is easily trans¬ 
planted it would seem that western Europe 
might profit from the endeavor, as it is a 
most important food fish as well as a de¬ 
lightful angler’s quest. Their method of 
spawning is of a markedly peculiar na¬ 
ture, consisting of a gelatinous mass, de¬ 
posited on a root or other firm substance 
at or near the bottom of the stream, which 
breaks up or dissolves as the eggs ripen. 
