THE PERCH. 1 69 



According to the arrangement of Baron Cuvier, Britain 

 possesses but one species of the genus Perca, universally 

 known by the name of Common Perch. In general it is a 

 gregarious fish, found inhabiting most of the lakes in Scot- 

 land, as well as those in England and Ireland. According 

 to Cuvier, it occurs over the whole of the temperate parts 

 of Europe, as well as in most of the northern districts of 

 Asia. In the neighbourhood of Edinburgh it is of common 

 occurrence, particularly in the Union Canal, Duddingston 

 Loch, and Lochend. It is met with in some of the rivers 

 leading into the Forth, and, on some few occasions, speci- 

 mens have been taken in the estuary itself; but when 

 found in this latter situation, or in brackish water, it has 

 been carried down, through the medium of higKfloods, from 

 some distant pond. Pallas, it is said, found perch in the 

 Caspian Sea. 



The habits of the perch most persons are acquainted with. 

 It prefers deep lochs or canals, or those slow-running wa- 

 ters, where the banks are shaded and covered with weeds, 

 in preference to the more rapid running rivers, so favour- 

 able to the habits of most of the fresh-water fishes. Perch, 

 on some occasions, attain to a large size. Bloch alludes to 

 one, the head of which alone measured twelve inches in 

 length. Pennant speaks of one taken in the Serpentine 

 River, in Hyde Park, which weighed nine pounds. Colonel 

 Montagu saw a perch of eight pounds weight taken in the 

 Avon, in Wiltshire, by a line baited with a roach. In 

 Loch Lomond it is not unfrequently taken of the weight 

 of five pounds, but beyond that it is seldom met with. 



The spawning season of the perch is about the end of April, 

 when the ova, as noticed by Aristotle, are united together by 

 a viscid matter in lengthened strings. Bloch has observed 



