PIKE-PERCH. 1?S 



cavities in the upper jaw. Both sides of the upper 

 and lower jaw are armed with trenchant teeth ; 

 the roof of the rnouth is also armed with two 

 rows of teeth, the two anterior being much the 

 longest. I have in my collection many specimens 

 of fishes' teeth, but none, I think, so terrible as 

 those of the pike-perch. The teeth of an animal 

 indicate the food on which it subsists : I should 

 say, therefore, that the pike-perch is a most vora- 

 cious and carnivorous fish ; but still, I think he 

 must have different habits from the pike, as his 

 teeth are differently arranged. On dissecting the 

 fish, I found that the stomach was thin, but very 

 capacious ; in it were the remains of a fish which 

 appeared to be very like that of another pike-perch. 

 When examining the stomach, the oesophagus felt 

 very rough ; I therefore dried the soft parts, and 

 found that the pike-perch had a pavement of 

 teeth on each side of the gullet, as well as a set to 

 correspond on the floor of the pharynx. The edges 

 of the bones which carry the gills are also covered 

 with tufts, which tufts are composed of very minute, 

 needle-pointed spikes of bone ; these, when dried, 

 are exceedingly pretty. The subject dissected 

 was a female, full of roe ; the eggs are very minute, 

 smaller than perch ova." 



In many Schleswig lakes zander are plentiful ; 

 in others they are not so, although connected with 

 one another, and apparently of the same kind of 

 water. The fish do not like a muddy bottom, but 

 thrive best in lakes with stony, sandy, or clay beds, 

 and in instances where they have been transferred 

 to neighbouring waters, they have been known to 

 take advantage of the first high floods to return to 

 their original home. Considerable difficulty was 



