THE PIKE-PERCH. 29 



seasons they are abundant, and then for years together they 

 become very scarce, or almost altogether disappear." 



The pike-perch feeds chiefly on small fish, more especially 

 Nors, or the fry of the smelt. It is said indeed, by some, 

 that he only inhabits waters where that fish is found. He 

 also feeds on small fluviatile and marine animals, and when 

 pressed by hunger so we are told by Kroyer and Ekstrom 

 on vegetable substances. The pike, the perch, and other fish 

 of prey, prefer greatly living or fresh baits ; but the gos, on 

 the contrary, is believed to have a special liking to such as 

 are dead and tainted. In some places, indeed, the fisher- 

 men are accustomed to expose the small fish intended as bait 

 for some hours to the rays of the sun, that they may thereby 

 acquire an odour, prior to placing them on the hook. 



By all accounts this fish is not tenacious of life. The 

 fishermen in my neighbourhood asserted, indeed, that the 

 so-called Is-Gos, dies as soon as taken out of the water, 

 oft-times even as soon as hooked, or enveloped in the folds 

 of the net, a fact which by some was attributed to their 

 excessive fatness ; and this story is in a degree corroborated 

 by Swedish and Danish naturalists. Kroyer tells us, for 

 example, "That the gos is not hard-lived indeed that its 

 life is extinct soon after it leaves its native element;" and 

 Ekstrom, "that when he finds himself a prisoner, and 

 has made one or more efforts to escape, he resigns him- 

 self quietly to his fate, and one finds him floating belly 

 upwards on the surface; as soon as he is captured he 

 discharges the air from the swim-bladder, which occasions 

 a noise resembling eructation. He commonly dies at the 

 same instant. The fishermen are therefore accustomed, 

 as soon as he is hauled into the boat, to pierce the tail 



