PIKE-PERCH. 



a little below Sodertelje. It is found in the Bay of 

 Kiel", hut only rai-ely, and it has [U'oliahh- migrated 

 thither through the Eidei' Canal. From the lakes and 

 lagoons of Schleswig-Holsteiu, however, thoughout Ger- 

 many east of the Rhine, in the North of Ital\-, and fi'om 

 Finland sontli of the Aretie-circle'' and the island-belt 

 of the (lulf of Finland, it is spread over the whole of 

 F.astern Europe as far as the Black Sea and the Caspian 

 with their affluents. It prefers deep, clear and pure 

 water, where the bottom is sandy or stony. On a, clayey 

 bdttdm where the water is turbid, it is seldom found, 

 though Lloyu' and Lili-.ikboho assert that it occurs in 

 |)laces where the bf)ttom is of this nature, in Lakes 

 Wener and KarslK)lm. "It does not remain stationary 

 in one place," Avrites Mr. LiMiiour;, "but wanders long 

 distances alone. It generally kcei)S near the bottom, 

 but at the approach of spring it swims nearer the sur- 

 face, often quite close to the ice. After the spawning- 

 season it keeps close inshore during a short part of the 

 summer, then goes out into deep water and first returns 

 to shallower water at the end of August or the begin- 

 ning of September. All the winter it remains in deep 

 water." In temperament it is sluggish, and displays so 

 little sagacity that it has given rise to the proverb, 'as 

 slUy as a pihe-percli. Its movements in the water are 

 also heavy and clumsy. As soon as it feels that it is 

 a prisoner and has made one or two unsuccessful at- 

 tempts to escape, it abandons itself to despair, so com- 

 pletely that it is most often found floating on its back 

 at the surface. When it is taken up from deep water, 

 the air-bladder bursts Avith a sound like that of eruc- 

 tation, and at the same moment it dies. It is not very 

 tenacious of life and is one of the hardest fishes to keep 

 alive; but with care at its capture and in a suitable 

 vessel filled with fresh Avater it can be conveyed long 

 distances, as ])roved by its transpoi'tation from Germany 

 to England, and from Galicia to the Rhine and Lake 

 Constance, and also by the attemps made by Mr. Tkybom'', 

 an official under the Board of Fisheries, to introduce 

 it from Lake Oppmanna into Lake Rabelof and Ring 



Lake in Scania. In voracity the Pike-perch is little 

 sur])assed by its near relative, the Perch, and in its 

 rapacity as well as in its strongly armed jaws Gkss- 

 NER who, in llie sixteenth century, was the first to 

 desci'ibi! the Pike-per<h, found such a close likeness to 

 the Perch, that he gave it the name of Lnrioperca. 

 The fo(jd of the Pike-])erch consists of small fishes, espe- 

 cially the Smelt, which, like itself, inhabits deep water 

 during the greatei' part of the yciir. Ekstrom, however, 

 also found insects, worms, and grass in its stomach. 



The reason for ihe ditt'ei'ent accounts of the spawn- 

 ing-season of the Pike-perch must depend on the fact 

 that it lasts unconimoidy long, which is perha]w con- 

 nected with the fact that it is confined To the night- 

 time. It begins as early as the end of Api'il and often 

 extends to the middle of June'. During this period 

 the Pike-perch makes its way in shoals to stony reefs 

 in open creeks or stony and sandy jKjints along the 

 shore'. It never spawns in Avater less than from 10 to 

 16 feet deep. The roe, which is light in colour and 

 ver}' fine in proportion to the size of the fish — so fine, 

 in fact, that moi-e than 300,000 eggs have Ijeen counted 

 in one single female — , is deposited on stones and water- 

 plants to which it adheres. It is a remarkable fact that 

 this fish is less numerous than one might expect from 

 the number of its eggs. "The fertilization and hatching of 

 the eggs of the Pike-perch," says Mr. Limborg, the Inspec- 

 tor of Fisheries, in Sodermanland, "labours under gi-eat 

 difficulties, for if the female be put into the cauf before 

 the roe is almost ready to be deposited, she dies before 

 depositing the roe. In order to succeed in the fertilization 

 of the roe, one must try to procure females in which the 

 roe is so matured that it can be ejected by a slight 

 pressure on the belly, immediately after the fish is taken 

 out of the water." Norback recommends the moistening 

 of the parts near the vent with some drops of the milt, 

 in order to facilitate the depositing of the eggs. Even if 

 the fertilization succeeds, and sometimes even after the 

 fry have left the eggs, it may happen that the attempt 

 finally fails'. The fry must, therefore, receive great 



" Cf. MoBins and Heixcke, Fisclie tier Ostsee, p. 3.3. 



* Cf. Malmgren, Krit. Of vers. Fiiil. Fisk/auna, p. 2; and Reuter and Scndman, 1. c. 



' Anteckniiiyar under ett tjiignarigl vistande i Skandinavien, I, p. 14. 



'' Cf. Xdt/rn fiskodliiiijsjoretag i Skdne, aren 1883 och 1884. ilalmohus Lans Hushidlningssallskaps Qvartalsskrift, 1884. 



< -'To this rule," writes Mr. LiMBORG, ''Lake Yngaren forms a remarkable exception, for there the Pike-perch first begins to spawn when 

 the spawning-season in all the other lakes of Sodermanland is over, and the spawning-season extends to the middle of July." 



/ . . . "often in very muddy water": Norh.Ick, Fiskevard och Fiskafvel, p. 3G2. Cf. also Reuter, 1. c. 



!' Mr. .\mtsiiero of Stralsund liad great success with the fertilization, and from the eggs deposited on Myriophyllum he obtained "an 

 enormous number of fry,"' but the greater part of them died during the summer and only some hundreds were left alive. Vid. Max v. d. 

 Bor.ne, Fischziicht nnd Fischerei, p. 277. 



