THE PERCH.i 



I AM glad to be able to vouch personally for the 



fact that perch are once more becoming . 

 , . . ° Increase 



plentiful in the lower Thames. I believe it in the 

 ' 1 also the case in the upper part of the ""^'"^s 

 river. In May, 1897, Walton Sale, a Thames 

 backwater, was well stocked with perch-spawn. I 

 walked over to Walton to see about a punt I had 

 purchased for a friend, and took the opportunity of 

 searching the Sale for perch-spawn. The water- 

 weeds and willow roots were thickly festooned 

 with spawn in .very many places, affording a good 

 prospect of plenty of fry at an early date. It is a 

 great pity that the Mundella Act allows perch to be 

 taken so late as the iSth of March; I have taken 

 them in February in full spawn, particularly in mild 

 seasons ; and it should be made illegal to take perch 

 after the 15 th of February, at very latest, rn the 

 Thames. I saw many perch caught on the closing 

 day of the season in 1897, and each fish should 

 have been put back in the river. I have, during 

 recent years, taken many large perch when Thames 

 trouting with small bleak or gudgeon, carefully 



1 In view o'f Mr. Alfred Jardine's forthcoming volume, the 

 author has dealt very briefly with this and the following 

 species. — Ed. 



t 



