PERCH. 5 



dorsal and pectoral fins pale brown ; ventral, anal, and caudal 

 fins, bright vermilion. A deformed variety of Perch, with 

 the back greatly elevated and the tail distorted, has been 

 noticed by Linnaeus as occurring at Fahlun, in Sweden, and 

 in other lakes in the North of Europe. Similar Perch are 

 also found in Llyn Raithlyn, in Merionethshire. A fish of 

 this description is figured in the volume of Daniel's Rural 

 Sports devoted to Fishing and Shooting, page 247. Speci- 

 mens of the Perch, almost entirely white, have also been 

 found in the waters of particular soils, and I am indebted to 

 the kindness of G. S. Foljambe, Esq. of Osberton, for speci- 

 mens of another variety of Perch from Ravenfiehl Park 

 ponds, near Rotherham, in Yorkshire, the seat of Thomas 

 Walker, Esq. ; these specimens, when received in London, 

 were of a uniform slate-grey colour with a silvery tint, and 

 this peculiarity of colour is retained when the living fish are 

 transferred from the park ponds to other waters. 



Thomas Hurtley, in his published account of some natural 

 curiosities in the environs of Malham, in Craven, Yorkshire, 

 when writing of the fish of Malham Water (called provin- 

 cially Maum Tarn), says, p. 32, of the Perch, " There is 

 certainly a very extraordinary phenomenon attending them, 

 the cause of which I leave to naturalists to ascertain. After 

 a certain age they become blind : a hard, thick, yellow 

 film covers the whole surface of the eye, and renders the sight 

 totally obscured. When this is the case, the fish generally 

 are exceedingly black ; and although, from the more extreme 

 toughness and consistency of the membrane, it is evident that 

 some have been much longer in this state than others, yet 

 there appears no difference either in their flavour or condition. 

 Perch of five pounds 1 weight, and more, have been taken. 

 They are 'only to be caught with a net ; and appear to feed 

 at the bottom on Loach, Miller's Thumb, and testaceous 

 mollusca." 



