232 THE PERCH 



minced up sufficiently fine for newly hatched perch to 

 take it, the little creatures feeding on what are, to us, 

 microscopic objects. It occurs to me that, though 

 the mincer fails, it might be possible to pound up 

 food in a pestle and mortar into a smooth paste and 

 that this distributed in the water might be taken ; but 

 here I am venturing into the regions of surmise. 



Speaking generally, an important essential in a 

 successful fish pond used for the artificial culture of 

 any kind of fish, is that it can be emptied right down 

 to the bottom, so that it can be used for fish of one 

 size when those fish have cannibalistic tendencies, as 

 have trout, perch, and pike. If the pond cannot be 

 emptied, a few thousand perch are bred in it, netted 

 out, say, when two or three years old, and then a 

 fresh stock introduced. The almost certain result is 

 that a few of the old stock will have missed the nets, 

 and these will have a rare banquet on the fry. More- 

 over, the sticklebacks which always seem to get into 

 ponds somehow or other, are most terrible enemies 

 to the fry of most kinds of fish in their earliest stage. 

 There should, of course, be protection from king- 

 fishers, herons, ducks, swans, and dabchicks ; and 

 there should be an abundance of water lilies and other 

 plants to give shade to the fish, and form a nursery 

 for the water insects on which they feed Perch, by 



