748 PISCES—PERCH...MACKEREL. 
THE PERCH! 
Is a gregarious fish, and loves deep holes, and gentle streams. It is a most 
voracious fish and eager biter; if the angler meets with a shoal of them, he 
is sure of taking every one. It is a common notion, that the pike will not 
attack this fish, being fearful of the spiny fins which the perch erects on the 
approach of the former. This may be true in respect to large fish; but it is 
well known the small ones are the most tempting bait that can be laid for 
the pike. 
The perch is a fish very tenacious of life; we have known them carried 
near sixty miles in dry straw, and yet survive the journey. These fish 
seldom grow to a large size. 
THE MACKEREL? 
Tue mackerel emits a phosphoric light when fresh from the sea. When 
taken out of the water, it soon dies, and even in the water, if it advance 
with too much impetuosity against the net. It is caught with that instru- 
ment, or with a hook baited with hits of red cloth, or small herrings, and 
pieces of other kinds of fish or flesh. In some places it is taken by lines 
from boats, as during a fresh gale of wind, it readily seizes a bait; it is 
necessary that the boat should be in motion, in order to drag the bait along 
near the surface of the water. There is a great fishery for mackerel on 
some parts of the west coast of England. This is of such an extent, as to 
1 Perca fluviatilis, Lix. The genus Perca has a snout without scales, not advancing 
>eyond the lips; second dorsal fin not sensibly longer than the first; ventral fins on the 
thorax ; pra-operculi dentated ; operculi spinous. 
2 Scomber scomber, Lin. The genus Scomber, or mackerel, has a projecting ridge on 
each side of the tail,and a row of pointed teeth in each jaw; anal and dorsal fins witb 
the posterior part divided into spurious fins ; the second dorsal, distant from the first. 
