THE PERCH. 49 



.most appreciated, for food, if not for sport, of the 

 denizens of the river. 



This fish is too well known to require description ; 

 a clumsily-shaped, awkward fish, but handsomely 

 marked, and, when in good condition, by no means 

 unpleasant to look upon, though essentially so to 

 handle, the strong sharp spines on the dorsal fin in- 

 flicting a painful and not easily-cured wound. The 

 hungry pike, although, when no more accommo- 

 dating food is at hand, he will swallow the smaller 

 ones, shrinks instinctively from any interference 

 with adult members of the family ; and this immu- 

 nity from the attacks of other fish tends greatly to 

 the increase in the numbers of the perch. Some 

 of the Cumberland and Westmoreland lakes are 

 stocked with them to the absolute exclusion of any 

 others, and so quarrelesome and greedy are they, 

 that the only wonder is that they have not, like 

 the Kilkenny cats, annihilated themselves. 



It frequently happens while fishing for gudgeon, 

 that those confiding little fish suddenly, and with- 

 out apparent cause, leave off biting. If you shorten 

 your line a few inches, remove the red worm, and 

 replace it by a minnow, the hook carefully passed 

 through the upper lip, you will probably catch the 

 responsible cause in the shape of an intrusive perch; 

 and though he afford little sport, for a more faint- 



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