22 The Perch. 



feeder, and devours even those of his own kind. His 

 haunts are chiefly in streams not very deep or swift, and 

 where there are weeds or lurking-places under hollow 

 banks, at gravelly bottoms, at the turning of eddies, and 

 in deep pools in ponds, near weeds or rushes, and in 

 deep holes between weeds and stumps of trees. The baits 

 used for taking him are the worm, minnow, stickleback, 

 a small frog, and the fly, especially one described here- 

 after as the perch-fly. In fishing for him in ponds or still 

 water with a bait, use a float, and fish about a foot from 

 the bottom, or, at times, about midwater. If you bait 

 with minnow, let it be the live one ; use your worm tac- 

 kle, hooking the minnow, near the fore part of the back 

 fin, skin deep, from side to side, so that it is balanced 

 evenly and thus able to swim about. Your line must be 

 shotted to keep him down, and attached to a good sized 

 float, which the minnow cannot take under water. When 

 you have a bite, be sure to give him time enough to 

 gorge the bait. The perch is gregarious, therefore if one 

 be taken, you may be almost certain of others in the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood. 



SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION. 



ORDER III. Thoracici. Ventral fins under the pectoral. 

 GENUS PERCA. Perca Fluviatilis. Perch. 



" Acanthopterygii. Percidce. 



(Some fiii rays spinous, others flexible.) (The family of the Perches.) 



" Perca Fluviatilis. LINNAEUS, Block, pt. ii. pi. 52. 



CUVIER ET VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. des 



Poiss. t. ii. p. 20. 

 Perch. PENNANT, Brit. Zool. edit. 1812. 



vol. iii. p. 345. pi. 59. 



DONOVAN, Brit. Fishes, pi. 52. 

 FLEMING, Brit.AnimalSiip.2I3.sp. 142. 



