PERCH. 187 



According to Professor Owen, the milt and roe are single 

 in the different sexes. According to several authors it docs 

 not breed until the' third year of its age, and in spawning it 

 seeks for some pointed piece of wood, against which it presses 

 the vent; and when some of the spawn has become attached 

 to this substance, it moves in different directions, so as to 

 draw out the ova, which are enveloped in a cord of tough 

 mucus, much like that of the common toad. The quantity of 

 spawn is often large, and has been known to weigh one fourth 

 part of the whole weight of the fish; but the bulk becomes 

 much increased after it is shed, by the absorption of water 

 into its substance. 



It is much valued for the table, and the skin has been 

 employed in the place of glue, in the manner described by 

 Linnceus, "Lachesis Lapponica:" "The glue used by the 

 Laplanders for joining the two portions of different woods of 

 which their bows are made, is prepared from the Common 

 Perch in the following manner: Some of the largest of this 

 fish being flayed, the skins are first dried, and afterwards 

 soaked in a small quantity of cold water, so that the scales 

 can be rubbed off. Four or five of these skins being wrapped 

 up together in a bladder, or in a piece of birch bark, so 

 that no water can get at them, are set on the fire in a pot 

 of water to boil, a stone being laid over the pot to keep in 

 the heat. The skins thus prepared make a very strong glue, 

 insomuch that the articles joined with it will never separate 

 again. A bandage is tied round the bow while making, to 

 hold the two parts more firmly together." 



The usual size of a full-grown Perch is from nine or ten 

 inches to a foot in length; but examples are on record which 

 have much exceeded these dimensions. Willoughby says that 

 he had seen one which measured fifteen inches; and Izaac Walton 

 mentions an instance which came to his knowledge, where it 

 measured nearly two feet; and Hawkins, in his Notes to the 

 "Complete Angler," refers to one twenty-nine inches in length. 

 The form of the body is compressed and deep; and the outline 

 rises in an arched direction from the mouth to a little in advance 

 of the first dorsal fin. The mouth is terminal, and the jaws 

 about equal; teeth slender and numerous in the jaws, and over 

 the palate. The body and part of the cheeks covered with 



