PERCH. 3 



contain 280,000 ova ; and the spawning season is at the end 

 of April, or beginning of May. Perch live for some hours 

 out of water, and bear a journey of forty or fifty miles, if 

 carried steadily, and watered occasionally. They are con- 

 stantly exhibited in the markets of Catholic countries ; and, 

 if not sold, are taken back to the ponds from which they 

 were removed in the morning, to be reproduced another day. 

 The flesh of this fish is firm, white, of good flavour, and easy 

 of digestion. 



A Perch of three pounds weight is considered a fish of 

 large size ; Perch, however, of four pounds have been taken 

 from the Richmond Park ponds. Mr. Donovan, in his His- 

 tory of British Fishes, records one of five pounds taken in 

 Bala Lake. Mr. Hunt, of the Brades, near Dudley, Staf- 

 fordshire, took a Perch of six pounds from the Birmingham 

 Canal. Montagu once saw a Perch of eight pounds taken in 

 the Avon, in Wiltshire, by a runner, or night-line, baited 

 with a Roach for a Pike : and a Perch of eight pounds was 

 caught in Dagenham Breach. Pennant records his having 

 heard of one that was taken in the Serpentine River, Hyde 

 Park, that weighed nine pounds ; and it is stated by Bloch 

 and others, that the head of a Perch is preserved in the 

 church of Luehlah, in Lapland, which measures near twelve 

 inches from the point of the nose to the end of the gill-cover. 



The body of the Perch is compressed, and its height about 

 one-third of its whole length. The length of the head is 

 equal to the height of the body, and compared to the length 

 of the body is as two to seven : the jaws are nearly equal, and 

 the opening of the mouth is about one-fourth of the whole 

 head : the teeth are small, uniform in size, curving backwards, 

 and the inside of the mouth is furnished with a transverse 

 palatine membrane. There are two external openings to each 

 nostril, surrounded by several orifices, which allow the escape 

 of a mucous secretion. These apertures are larger and more 



B 2 



