3i8 THE PERCH 



to spawn, and have also seen many yards of the 

 curious milky-white, semi-opaque ribbons of glutinous 

 matter which contains the eggs, I, have never yet ob- 

 served perch in the actual act of depositing their eggs. 



In big rivers the females frequently spawn along- 

 side the bank, in about two feet of water, but occa- 

 sionally so near the surface that the eggs can be reached 

 by ducks and other water fowl. One may see the 

 ribbons of spawn lying on the sprouting shoots of 

 water lilies, among weeds, on the roots of willow-trees 

 which project from the bank below the surface of 

 the water, and, in fact, on any object which serves 

 to sustain the eggs at their proper level. 



The eggs require sun's light or sun's warmth pos- 

 sibly both to hatch them, and the female perch ap- 

 parently endeavour to effect a happy compromise by 

 placing their spawn sufficiently near the surface to be 

 beneficially affected by the sun, and yet so deep as to 

 be out of reach of some at least of their enemies. It 

 is very interesting to note how altogether different this 

 is to the habits of trout. With the Salmonidae the eggs 

 are hidden from the light among the gravel, and are 

 deposited where the stream runs shallow and fast. 



Sometimes female perch fall into an egregious 

 blunder in the deposition of their eggs. One summer 

 the Thames flowed full and high in the early spring, so 



