98 FISHES OF AUSTRALIA. 



rivers of New South Wales ; including the Darling 

 and the Murray ; and has also been taken in the Mary River, 

 Queensland. It is pre-eminently what might be called a 

 "still-water" fish, being very abundant in lagoons and "billa- 

 bongs." It is also a "mid-water" fish ; that is, it swims at 

 some distance from the bottom usually ; this habit being 

 different to that of the Murray Cod for instance, which, 

 while inhabiting the same waters, usually gropes about in 

 the vicinity of the bottom. It is a fish of the plains, rather 

 than one of the mountains. 



As an article of food, the Golden Perch is very well 

 and favourably known, both in the western areas and the 

 cities of Sydney and Melbourne. 



Though taken by hook and line, the usual method of 

 capture is by means of a short meshing-net (gill-net) which 

 is set at night, across the billabong or lagoon. A fisher- 

 man who has fished for Yellow-belly in many of the New 

 South Wales rivers, tells me that one of this species will blun- 

 der straight into a meshing-net, apparently without seeing 

 it ; while a Murray Cod under the same circumstances would 

 swim up to within a short distance of the net and then 

 quickly take fright and "double" back again. The rela- 

 tively different positions of the eyes in each species, would 

 partially account for this difference in habit. 



The name of "Golden Perch" also that of " Yellow - 

 bellv" are both derived from the fact that when this fish is 

 alive, or just freshly-caught, the sides and lower portions 

 are of a beautiful orange-gold colour. 



This fish often attains a weight of 7 to 8 pounds. 



Here it will be of interest to mention that in 1893, 

 Mr. Saville-Kent, the well-known naturalist, transported a. 

 number of Golden Perch and some Eels from the lower 

 portion of the Murray River to the upper portion of the 

 Mvan River in Western Australia ; vici Adelaide ; and also, 

 in 1894, several hundred Golden Perch averaging from a 

 quarter to half a pound in weight. Some of the latter were 

 placed in the Upper Swan, while the remainder were put 

 into a lake, having a constant supply of water, about 10 

 miles out of Albany. 



