52 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
The spines of the dorsal fin had been tampered with, and 
dark stripes painted on the body, which certainly justified 
the committee in rejecting this exhibit as a fraud. 
A perch of 8 lb. taken in Dagenham Breach, Essex, and 
one of 7 lb. reported from the New Cut between Readham 
and Herringfleet, both many years ago, may be accounted 
for as cases of mistaken identity ; as may probably one killed 
in the Lunan, Forfarshire, in 1894, weighing 5 lb. 13 oz. 
The late Frank Buckland vouched for three genuine fresh- 
water perch, two of 44 Ib. each, taken respectively in Wroxham 
Broad and in the Bure ; and the third of 42 lb., caught in the 
reservoir at Daventry. But the three largest specimens which 
have fallen to the rod of Mr. Jardine, who has probably killed 
more perch than any other living angler, weighed respectively 
33 Ib., 32 lb., and 2 lb. 15 02z., all taken in the Colne and 
Loddon. The present writer, although as a boy he killed 
many hundreds of perch in Scottish waters, never scored one 
of 3 lb., although twice he has come within three or four 
ounces of that weight, and many times has caught perch 
weighing over 2 lb. 
Perch are essentially gregarious fish, swimming and seeking 
their prey in shoals, which are sometimes exceedingly numerous. 
Usually the members of a shoal are of nearly uniform 
size, the more numerous the shoal the smaller the fish. 
It may happen to one idling motionless beside a placid bay of 
some clear lake to behold a beautiful sight. A multitude of 
little forms, all striped alike, and about four or five inches long, 
glide in gently from the deep water over the sand and pebbles, 
threading their devious way among the stems of water-weeds. 
Here, half a dozen or so break away in pursuit of some 
gammarus or swimming larva; there, a floating fly tempts 
one of them to dimple the surface in a leisurely fashion, very 
different from the upward rush and dash of a lake-trout. 
But these always rejoin the company ; never resting, never 
rapid, except in pursuit or alarm—these little fellows, to the 
Habits. 
