250 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



Since I can remember anything I always remember reading 

 in angling books that the perch was a ' bold biter.' This bold 

 biting combined with his voracious appetite, constitutes, no 

 doubt, from an angler's point of view, his principal charm. 

 From the point of view of the minnow and other small fry whose 

 misfortune it is to inhabit the same locale it presents itself no 

 doubt in a different point of view. 



To find half a dozen good sized minnows in the stomach of 

 the perch is nothing out of the common, and failing these he 

 takes kindly to insects, frogs, caterpillars, worms, and grubs of all 

 sorts. The extent to which the perch will gorge himself with his 

 favourite food may be illustrated by a fact which has come under 

 the observation of many fishermen. When he has pouched so 

 many minnows that his stomach positively refuses to contain 

 any more he will endeavour to bite and, if possible, masticate 

 others and under these circumstances I have repeatedly hooked 

 and captured a perch by a minnow with the tails of the previous 

 victims, which he had already swallowed and was unable to 

 pouch, protruding from his gullet. When thus gorged he often 

 ejects a portion of his prey on being landed. 



A very singular, though I believe, not unparalleled instance of 

 the voracity of the perch occurred to me when fishing in Win- 

 dermere. In removing the hook from the jaws of the fish, one 

 eye was accidentally displaced and remained adhering to it. 

 Knowing the rcparative capabilities of piscine organisation, I 

 returned the maimed perch, which was too small for my basket, 

 to the lake and, being somewhat scant of minnows, threw the 

 line in again with the eye attached as bait, there being no other 

 of any description on the hook. The float disappeared almost 

 instantly ; and on landing the new comer, it turned out to be 

 the fish I had the moment before thrown in, and which had 

 thus been actually caught by his own eye. 



This incident proves, I think, conclusively, that the structure 

 of cold blooded animals enables them to endure very severe 

 injuries and wounds without experiencing material incon- 

 venience ; a fact which may tend to remove any qualms of 



