I 4 8 THE PERCH. 



counted the eggs, which numbered 155,620 in the 

 larger fish, and 127,240 in the smaller. 



The ova of perch are about the size of millet 

 seeds, and instead of being deposited and separated 

 one from another as in the Salmonida, are (when 

 extruded) invested with and bound together by 

 a copious matrix of semi-transparent mucilage, 

 and are hung in loops or festoons of ribbon-like 

 bands upon water-weeds, among submerged sedges 

 or boughs ; the perch goes into such places 

 and rubs or presses herself against the weeds, 

 until one end of the band of ova has become 

 attached, and then swimming slowly away the eggs 

 are voided. Perch will bear a strong admixture 

 of sea water. I have known them to be caught in 

 the salmon nets below Wareham, where the river 

 Frome drops into Poole Harbour. They are very 

 abundant in some of the Norfolk Broads, and grow 

 to large dimensions ; besides the two I 

 of size have already mentioned as specified by 



and the late Mr. Frank Buckland, he par- 

 numbers ... j. 



ticulanses two others a fine fish of 



4| Ibs. taken on a "Jigger" in Wroxham Broad; 

 also one of 4! Ibs. in the Bure ; another weighing 

 4f Ibs. was some years ago caught in the reservoir 

 at Daventry. My own largest specimens, captured 

 in the Colne and Loddon, were 3 Ibs. 8 ozs., 3 Ibs. 

 2 ozs. and 2 Ibs. 15 ozs., of which I have the 

 " casts " made by Frank Buckland and painted 

 by H. L. Rolfe. 



The naturalist Pennant (in British Zoology, pub- 

 lished 1761, 1769) mentions a perch caught in the 

 Serpentine, Hyde Park, that weighed 8 Ibs., but the 

 evidence is not satisfactory. The river Lunan was 

 said in 1894 to have produced a perch weighing 



