THE SUN-PERCH AND THE CATFISH 



for insects in the grass. They too are acclimatized, 

 like the rainbow trout. They can live easily enough in 

 the country from which they come, but not here. Here 

 they need continual looking after. They must be fed; 

 the results of all this pecking are only a sort of dessert. 

 Let them loose in a wood, and they would very soon 

 disappear because they could not find the nourishment 

 they need. To acclimatize them means to make them 

 slaves from birth. 



" The rainbow trout is not alone. The only fish we 

 have succeeded in taking from the United States have 

 belonged to the salmon family. Others have been tried, 

 notably the perch of that country. One of these species, 

 the black-bass, 1 is worth considering because of its 

 excellent flesh. It may weigh as much as four pounds. 

 Its body is oblong and corpulent like that of our native 

 perch, but it has several rows of black along the back, 

 which are peculiar to it, and make it easily recognized. 

 It is a really fine fish. The only fly in the ointment is 

 that it cannot live in most of our streams, as our own 

 perch did when it was common. Its food requirements 

 are considerable, proportionate to the rapidity of its 

 growth, and it must have a'bundant nourishment or it 

 will die. It only manages to survive in a few places, 

 lakes or canals, and is mainly found in the ponds of 

 the fish-breeders. This brings us to our sun-perch, 2 

 which belongs to the same family, but to the smaller 

 varieties of it. The name ' perch ' is given to a certain 

 number of species, sufficiently different as regards detail 

 to justify their being divided into several genera, but 

 alike as regards behaviour and appearance. The sun- 

 perch is an ornamental fish. It shines with every colour. 

 The greenish-grey and blue tinges of its back merge 

 into the orange and golden-flecked purple of its sides, 

 which are further marked with darker zig-zag quad- 

 rilaterals. All this splendour is enhanced, especially in 



1 Micropterus salmoides and others. 



2 Lepomis megalotis. 



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