PERCH. 
187 
According to Professor Owen, tlie milt and roe are single 
in tlie different sexes. According to several authors it does 
not breed until the third year of its age, and in spawning it 
seeks for some pointed piece of wood, against which it presses 
the vent; and when some of the spawn has become attached 
to this substance, it moves in different directions, so as to 
draw out the ova, which are enveloped in a cord of tough 
mucus, much like that of the common toad. The quantity of 
spawn is often large, and has been known to weigh one fourth 
part of the whole weight of the fish; but the bulk becomes 
much increased after it is shed, by the absorption of water 
into its substance. 
It is much valued for the table, and the skin has been 
employed in the place of glue, in the manner described by 
Linnffius, “Tachesis Lapponica:” — “The glue used by the 
Laplanders for joining the two portions of different woods of 
which their bows are made, is prepared from the Common 
Perch in the following manner: — Some of the largest of this 
fish being flayed, the skins are first dried, and afterwards 
soaked in a small quantity of cold water, so that the scales 
can be rubbed off. Four or five of these skins being wrapped 
irp together in a bladder, or in a piece of birch bark, so 
that no water can get at them, are set on the fire in a pot 
of water to bod, a stone being laid over the pot to keep in 
the heat. The skins thus prepared make a very strong glue,* 
insomuch that the articles joined with it will never separate 
again. A bandage is tied round the bow while making, to 
hold the two parts more firmly together.” 
The usual size of a full-grown Perch is from nine or ten 
inches to a foot in length; but examples are on record which 
have much exceeded these dimensions. TVilloughby says that 
he had seen one which measured fifteen inches; and Izaac IValton 
mentions an instance which came to his knowledge, where it 
measured nearly two feet; and Hawkins, in his Notes to the 
“Complete Angler,” refers to one twenty-nine inches in length. 
The form of the body is compressed and deep; and the outline 
rises in an arched direction from the mouth to a little in advance 
of the first dorsal fin. The mouth is terminal, and the jaws 
about equal; teeth slender and numerous in the jaws, and over 
the palate. The body and part of the cheeks covered with 
