THE PERCHES AND SEA-BREAMS. 



341 



customary to remove it before using the fish as bait for 

 pike, but the young fish are greedily devoured by both 

 trout and pike. It is a voracious fish, of catholic appetite, 

 feeding greedily on minnows, small roach and dace, young 

 water-hens, water-voles, also reptiles and insects, and it 

 pays the penalty of its want of discrimination by suffering 

 the attacks of a variety of parasites. It is of gregarious 

 habits, and those of similar size are usually found together 

 in the neighbourhood of sluices, weirs, and dams. In the 

 cold jnonths perch appear to grow sluggish. Anglers are 

 at all times careful not to prick and lose a perch, as the 

 rest of the shoal are easily frightened away. Its maximum 

 weight is about 7 or 8 lbs. ; but a fish of half this weight 

 is considered a fine specimen. Perch spawn among the 

 reeds in the month of May. 



The Bass, a marine form of perch, also found in 

 brackish, even in fresh, water, is a fish in great repute 

 with the sea-angler, chiefly on account of its 

 exceeding wariness and capricious movements, 

 but in little demand for the table. The bass is taken, 



tBass. 



mostly in trammels and crab-pots, in our waters weighing 

 as much as 20 lbs., but a fish of half the weight must be 

 regarded as above the average nowadays. Not unlike a 

 chub in general appearance, especially about the head, the 

 bass has the distinguishing percoid dorsal fins ; in colour, 

 it is dark green along the back, shading off to silver 



