160 Zoological CoUectiona. 



three feet, and often among the rushes and reeds in ponds> 

 particularly at spawning time. 



The habits of the perch are not very social. It does not 

 swim in groups or flocks like other fishes, but each has its se- 

 parate attraction. Its motion in swimming is by bounds or 

 leaps ; and it is often seen in still waters darting forward with 

 great rapidity to some distance, and afterwards remaining in 

 its customary immobility. The perch rarely leaps out of the 

 water, and comes seldom to the surface but in warm weather 

 to seize the gnats or their larvae. It feeds generally on 

 worms, insects which swim or fly on the water, the smaller 

 Crustacea, and fishes ; and as its voracity is extreme, it some- 

 times chooses its prey without sufiicient precaution. Thus 

 the stickleback often occasions its death, by erecting its sharp 

 dorsal spines at the moment the perch is about to swallow it, 

 which stick in the palate or throat. Salamanders, small vi- 

 pers, and young frogs, also serve as food to the perch ; and M. 

 de Lacepede has assured Baron Cuvier that they even seize 

 young water-rats. 



The perch spawns when about six inches long and three 

 years old, but it is not known how long a period is required 

 for attaining its greatest size. In the environs of Paris it 

 scarcely exceeds 15 or 18 inches in length, and rarely attains 

 two feet. Its weight is then from three to four lbs. This 

 remark applies to those of the lake of Geneva ; but Mr Pen- 

 nant relates, though not from his own knowledge, that a perch 

 weighing nine lbs. was taken in the Serpentine river. 



In the Seine the perch spawns in April, and Bloch remarks 

 that in Brandenburgh, in shallow waters, it spawns about the 

 same time ; but as the waters are deeper the spawning season 

 IS proportionally later. The great size of the ovary or roe at 

 this season, makes it desirable for them to disembarrass them- 

 selves of the load. In a perch of two lbs. it weighs about 

 seven or eight ounces, and the number of ova, according to 

 Harmer, is about 281 ,000, and according to M. Picot nearly a 

 million. This difference may arise from estimates made at 

 different ages; for the large and old fish appear to have a 

 larger ovarium than the smaller ones, though the ova of both 

 are of the same magnitude. 



