THE PERCH/ 



^UVIER has taken the Perch as the 

 type of his leading genus. In other 

 words, it is the first Species, of the first 

 Genus, of the first family, of the first 

 Order, of the first Series of fish in his systematic 

 classification. In the present essay, however, I 

 have found it on the whole more convenient not to 

 adopt the strictly ichthyological sequence in re- 

 ferring to the different species of sporting fish, and 

 the Perch here takes his place not according to 

 family ' descent,' but as naturally following after the 

 Pike, with which in actual sport he is so constantly 

 associated. 



The Perch — the common Perch of our ponds and 

 rivers — is very generally distributed over almost 

 the whole of Europe and Great Britain, and is one 

 of the most generally recognized inhabitants of 

 English waters from the Tweed to the Land's 

 End. In Wales it is a somewhat local fish, and 

 confined principally to stagnant waters; in Ireland 

 more widely diffused, though still in distribution 



^ rercafluviatilis. Perca, the Perch ; fliiviatilis, of the river, 

 Lat. 



