PERCHES. 
65 
exposure, as to be returned to the water, where 
they soon recover. 
O’Gorman describes the Perch as fond of 
noise, and as even sensible to the charms of 
music. One of his sons assured him that he 
had once seen a vast shoal of Perch appear 
at the surface, attracted by the sound of the 
bag-pipes of a Scotch regiment, that happened 
to be passing over a neighbouring bridge, and 
that they remained until the sounds died away 
in the distance.^ 
The Perch is a bold and fearless fish, and not 
a little destructive: small fry of all kinds are 
greedily devoured by him ; he roots up the 
spawn-beds to feed on the deposited ova; small 
Roach and Trout are destroyed by him in great 
numbers, and even Trout of considerable size 
are often driven from their feeding-places near 
shore by this beautiful but tyrannical spinous- 
finned fish. 
' In the beautiful lake of Genevh the Perch is 
said to be subject to a singular accident. In the 
winter these fishes ordinarily remain at a con- 
siderable depth, where, from the superincumbent 
I weight of so great a body of water, the air con- 
tained within the swim-bladder is much compressed. 
If now from any impulse a fish suddenly rises- 
to the surface, the pressure being removed, the 
air forcibly expands, and not being able to find 
any outlet, the membranous bladder becomes 
I greatly distended, sometimes to such a degree 
that it is forced out at the -mouth of the fish^ 
dragging the stomach, turned inside out, with 
it. In this sad condition, unable to sink, the 
* Practice of Angling, ii. 2. 
E 
