THE PERCH 



(Perca fluviatilis] 



THE perch is distributed generally over Great Britain, and is a 

 very handsome fish. Its back is olive-coloured, the sides yellow, the 

 belly white, and there are six well-defined dark bands along the sides. 

 The dorsal fin, the chief weapon of defence, has twelve spines, 

 which often draw blood from the unwary angler's hand. Below this 

 is another dorsal fin without spines. The ventral, anal, and tail fins 

 are tipped with scarlet. The scales are large and hard. The gill- 

 cover is also hard and bony and ends in a sharp point, which is also 

 used in defence. The flesh of the perch is excellent. 



Perch as a rule proceed in shoals and frequent quiet parts of a 

 river. Few are found in quick-running rivers. In many lochs they 

 simply swarm, and if food is plentiful,, grow to a large' size. The 

 largest I have ever seen came from a small loch in Cambridgeshire, 

 and turned the scale at 5 Ibs. In Scotland they seldom exceed 3 Ibs. 

 in weight, the average weight in many lochs being about i Ib. 

 They spawn in May and are very prolific. The ova, like that of 

 the pike, is attached to branches and weeds. By the middle of 

 August the perch fry are about an inch long and sport about in 

 large shoals. Trout and other fish feed much upon them, and I 

 have frequently caught trout whose stomachs contained many perch 

 fry. It is interesting to watch trout devouring these fry. One's 

 attention is usually drawn to them by seeing a number of terns dive 

 down into the loch, and on approaching the scene of action one sees 



the surface of the water all eddying and swirling with trout chasing 



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