243 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



THE PERCH. (Perca fluviatilis.) 



Not a nibble has ruffled my cork, 

 It is vain in this river to search, then ; 

 I may wait till it's night 

 Without any bite, 

 And at roost time have never a. perch then ! HOOD. 



THE common perch is, to quote an old writer, both 'good fyshe- 

 ing and good eating,' and has an especial claim on the notice of 

 the tyro as owing to his combined pluck and greediness he very 

 frequently falls the first victim to their bow and spear. In fact, 

 in many cases he requires hardly any art whatever to catch him, 

 and, being a pond as well as a river fish, and spread pretty 

 generally over the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, offers 

 special facilities for being found. This distribution, however, 

 although, as observed, very general, is by no means equal. In 

 Wales, for example, the perch is almost rare and confined princi- 

 pally to stagnant waters. In Ireland it is more widely diffused 

 but still somewhat unequally, and in Scotland, whilst very com- 

 mon south of the Firth of Forth, it becomes comparatively scarce 

 to the north of it, and ceases entirely amongst the Sutherland 

 and Ross-shire waters, or where observed is supposed to owe its 

 introduction to very recent times. 



Of the British perch, so far as my experience extends, the 

 Thames produces the best in the matter of quality ; Windermere 

 and Slapton Ley, the greatest show as to quantity ; and the 

 Kennet, from Hungerford to Reading, the finest specimens for 

 general size and weight. In this latter river, near Kettering, 

 Mr. Francis Hughes and myself took on one occasion several 

 dozen perch, averaging more than a full pound weight each, and 

 the largest fish considerably exceeded two pounds. A few large 



