2 24 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



our waters ; one of the last weight is said to have 

 been caught in Bala Lake, and one of 8 lbs. was 

 taken from the Avon in Wiltshire by means of a night- 

 line baited with a Roach. Our figure (PI. XXXI 11) 

 is of a I -lb. fish from Lough Erne. 



In some localities abnormal Perch are not 

 uncommon ; a hunch-backed form with a very deep 

 body, resembling a Crucian Carp in shape, and 

 paralleling the Hog-backed Trout, occurs in Loch 

 Arthur in Kirkcudbrightshire, Llyn Rhaithlyn in 

 Merionethshire, etc. ; it has also been taken in 

 Cheshire and in various Scandinavian lakes ; this 

 hunch-backed appearance is the outward manifesta- 

 tion of a malformed vertebral column, which is 

 shortened and has the number of joints reduced by 

 the imperfect development and fusion together of 

 several of the vertebrae. In various places Perch 

 may be taken with the snout very short and blunt 

 and the lower jaw projecting; similarly deformed 

 Salmon, Trout, and Pike have also been captured 

 in our islands. A Perch from Coggeshall, Essex, 

 in the British Museum collection, shows a reverse 

 malformation, the snout projecting beyond the 

 lower jaw, which is very short. 



The coloration of the Perch varies somewhat 

 according to locality, age, sex, and season ; the 

 young are usually paler than the adults and the 

 males more brilliant than the females, whilst all 

 are darker in the winter than in the summer ; in 

 the latter season it is a strikingly handsome fish, 

 and a large Perch about to seize its prey, with fins 

 spread and mouth agape, forms a fine picture. 



Perch live in shoals, in rivers, lakes, and ponds ; 

 they prefer deep pools or places where the current 



