PERCIML 5 



where it is brackish, their flavour for the table has been considered improved. In 

 Norfolk they have been observed to associate -with one another according to size, 

 the larger ones keeping in select societies by themselves, and the smaller ones in 

 similar companies.* Sluggish during the cold months, they become more active 

 in spring, when they frequent the more rapid parts of rivers and the shallower 

 waters. Mr. Manley, in his work on fishing, observes that he has found January 

 and February the best months for perch fishing. In confinement they become 

 very bold, and are easily tamed. In one of the tanks at the Westminster Aquarium 

 they might be seen lying on the leaves of the larger water plants, which are two 

 or three feet below the surface. They are very tenacious of life if the weather is 

 not very hot or thundery, and may be conveyed alive to long distances after 

 removal from the water, especially if surrounded by wet moss. In some parts of 

 the Continent, as Germany, these fish are taken alive to market, when, if unsold, 

 they are returned to stock ponds to await another opportunity. They are 

 injuriously affected by thunder, and also by frosts. 



The strong spines of their dorsal fins render large ones very formidable as food 

 for pike, still the young constitute a tempting bait. Anglers who employ them 

 as such usually first remove their back fin : while aquatic birds appear to relish 

 their flavour. When very hungry perch are said to make a meal of even the 

 spined-loach, Cobitis taenia, but usually avoid such as food. Lacepede states that 

 they eat young water rats, and have been known to devour small snakes. 



Means of capture. — Being very fearless, the perch readily takes a bait, 

 and even a moderately skilful angler, using worms, coming across an 

 assemblage of small ones while feeding, is pretty sure of numerous captures, 

 as they gorge the hook. In some localities they are taken with night-lines, 

 spinning bait or even netted ; while they have been known to take the fly. 

 Anglers now find that due to constant fishing, perch in some localities are more 

 wary than was formerly the case, and the use of fine tackle is necessary while 

 any tendency to quickness in striking is to be avoided. 



Baits. — Worms, shrimps, small Crustacea, the larvae of insects and live-bait, 

 as young frogs, newts, and small fishes, whether gudgeon, roach, dace, chub, or 

 minnow : even an artificial fly has been found successful. Isaac Walton observes 

 " that should jou. rove for a perch with a minnow, then it is best to be alive, you 

 sticking your hook through his back fin : or a minnow with the hook in the upper 

 lip, and letting him swim up and down about mid- water, or a little lower, and 

 you still keeping him to about that depth by a cork, which ought not to be a 

 very little one : and the like way you are to fish for the pike with a small frog, 

 your hook being fastened through the skin of his leg, towards the upper part 

 of it : and lastly I will give you this advice — that you give the perch time enough 

 when he bites, for there was scarce any angler that has given him too much." 

 Jesse remarks that these fish may be attracted to a given locality by placing 

 a number of live minnows in a glass bottle, from which their exit is prevented by 

 a piece of perforated zinc. When the astonished perch are looking in vain at the 

 tempting strangers, another minnow used as a bait is at once seized. Most anglers 

 are aware that should you happen to hook one of these fish and it is not 

 taken, your chances of obtaining more bites from members of that community 

 become diminished : often they instantly cease from patronizing the bait, as if 

 the one which had escaped capture had informed its fellows. But frequently 

 instances bearing the other way have been recorded "in removing the hook from 

 the jaws of a fish, one eye was accidentally displaced and remained adhering to it. 

 Knowing the reparative capabilities of piscine organization, I returned the 

 maimed perch, which was too small for the basket, to the lake, and being 

 somewhat scant of minnows threw the line in again with the eye attached to it as a 

 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 actually been caught with 

 bifi own eye."f 



* Fisherman's Mnpnzine, i, p. 107. 



f Cbolmondelev Pennell, Angler's Naturalist, p. 51. 



