THE PERCH. 1l*p 
die moft common inhabitant of our fifh ponds, and af- 
fords a very wholefome and palatable food. 
5 f he River Perch *. 
The ancients were acquainted with this fpecies ; and 
among them it was deemed one of the firft delicacies of' 
the table, 
Nec te, delicias men (-arum perca, filebo 
Amnigenos inter pifees dignande marinis. ausonhjs. 
Rondeletius, and after him Gefner, blames the phyfi- 
cians in his time for ordering the river perch to their 
patients in febrile diforders, after a prefeription of Galen, 
who meant the fea perch, a filh nruqh lighter, as he al- 
leges, and eaGer of digeftionf. Experience, however, 
has fliewn that this diftindlion is made without a differ- 
ence ; both the fea and river kind being found equally 
palatable and falubrious. In the time of Willoughby this 
prejudice againft the river perch had been forgotten : He 
approves of the tafte of Aufonius , in deeming the flclh of 
this animal a great delicacy. 
The river perch is ealily caught with common earth 
Worms, or ftnall frogs, for a bait ; and is fo voracious, 
that the angler, who falls in with a fhoal of them, will 
fometimes kill the whole. This fpecies fejdom grows to 
a iarge fize, few being lound above five or fix pounds, 
F f 2 the 
8 Perea Fluviatilis, Rond. Une pcrc! e de E-ivierci Eclcn. 
4 V dc Rond, apjid Will, p, * 93 . 
