PERCH. S7 



Dray ton, in the " Polyolbion," speaks of it as a natural enemy of the 



pike : 



The perch with pricking fins against the pike prepared. 



Pope lauds his beauty in exaggerated terms : 



The bright-eyed perch with fins of Tyrian dye. 



As a matter of fact, its fins are not of Tyrian purple hue. However, 

 the passage will pass muster much better than that referring to him 

 in the " Complimentary Ode to Izaak Walton," which runs : 

 The greedy perch, bold, biting fool. 



Walton, sharing Drayton's opinion, says, "to affright the pike and 

 save himself the perch will set up his fins much like a turkey cock will some- 

 times set up his tail." I am inclined to believe that there is little method 

 in this setting up of fins, beyond that contained in a pride of personal 

 appearance which seems inherent in most gaudily furnished animals. 



The origin of the word " perch " is not very difficult to trace. Mr. 

 Manley, an author delighting in etymological difficulties, and one of 

 infinite resource in getting out of them, in " Notes on Fish and Fish- 

 ing" traces it back to the Greek perJce, the feminine of the adjective 

 jperkos, signifying some dark colour. Hence the fish was termed " perch " 

 or ' ' pearch ' ' from its darkly banded sides. He quarrels with the naming 

 of the perch, however, and considers that the old Anglican name Bears, 

 i.e., bars, was much better. In the " Haven of Health" the author says 

 that the perch is so called "by a figure of antiphrasis Quia nulli pisciuvn 

 parcet because he does not spare any kind of fish." Mr. Manley very 

 logically connects the word with our vulgar use of the similar phrase, 

 perk, perky, meaning a person of piquant, conceited, assuming, pugnacious 

 nature, apt to be spinous and prickly if annoyed. 



Of course the perch possessed in the eyes of old naturalists and 

 physicians certain gastronomic and medicinal virtues. In Germany there 

 is a proverb which runs " More wholesome than a perch of the Rhine." 

 Oesner prefers it to a trout, and he informs us that the physicians 

 value it so much that they recommend it to be eaten freely by wounded 

 men, women in childbed, and those suffering from dangerous fevers. 

 Aldrovandus also praises it ; and old doctors, with characteristic 

 'whimsicality, were used to prescribe two (imaginary P) round bones from 

 "the perch's head as a remedy for "stone." The wholesomeness is, 

 of course, undisputed, and I am really inclined to give an unqualified 

 preference to perch over all other fresh-water non-migratory fish as an 

 adjunct of the table. I know of no more respectable product of fresh 

 water than a well-fed Thames perch of from half a pound to a pound 

 And a half in weight. There is only one way, however, so far as I know, 



