PERCH. 3 



and, if not sold, are taken back to the ponds from whicli 

 they were removed in the morning, to be reproduced another' 

 day. The flesh of this fish is firm, white, of good flavour, 

 and easy of digestion. 



A Perch of three pounds weight is considered a fish of large 

 size ; Perch, however, of four pounds have been taken from 

 the Richmond Park ponds. Mr. Donovan, in his History 

 of British Fishes, records one of five pounds taken in Bala 

 Lake. Mr. Hunt, of the Brades, near Dudley, Stafford- 

 shire, took a Perch of six pounds from the Birmingham 

 Canal. Montagu once saw a Perch of eight pounds taken in 

 the Avon, in Wiltshire, by a runner, or night-line, baited 

 with a roach for a pike : and a Perch of eight pounds was 

 caught in Dagenham Breach. Pennant records his having 

 heard of one that was taken in the Serpentine River, Hyde 

 Park, that weighed nine pounds ; and it is stated by Bloch 

 and others, that the head of a Perch is preserved in the 

 church of Luehlah, in Lapland, which measures near twelve 

 inches from the point of the nose to the end of the gill-cover. 



The body of the Perch is compressed, and its height about 

 one-third of its whole length. The length of the head is 

 equal to the height of the body, and compared to the length 

 of the body is as two to seven : the jaws are nearly equal, and 

 the opening of the mouth is about one-fourth, of the whole head : 

 the teeth are small, uniform in size, curving backwards, and 

 the inside of the mouth is furnished with a transverse palatine 

 membrane. There are two external openings to each nostril, 

 surrounded by several orifices, which allow the escape of a 

 mucous secretion. These apertures are larger and more nu- 

 merous about the heads of fishes generally than over the other 

 parts, the viscous secretion defending the skin from the action 

 of the water. The distribution of the mucous orifices over 

 the head is one of those beautiful and advantageous provi- 



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