BY JOHN BICKERDYKE, M.A.
The thick-set, golden-bronze, dark-barred, hog-backed fish known as the Perch has many striking characteristics, and is remarkable, among other things, for the vast number of its relations scattered all over the world. So numerous, indeed, are its cousins that ichthyologists have had to divide the Perch Family into a large number of groups. There are various species of perch found, as a matter of fact, in the fresh-waters and on all the coasts of the temperate and tropical regions.
Photo by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt] [Washington.
LARGE-MOUTHED BLACK BASS.
The introduction of this fish into the fresh-waters of Great Britain has been frequently urged.
The Common Perch, which is widely distributed over Europe, Northern Asia, and North America, is properly an inhabitant of rivers, lakes, and ponds, but sometimes descends to brackish water. It runs up to about 5 lbs. in weight, and is carnivorous, eating most kinds of fish small enough for its swallow, including the fry of its own species, which are, in some waters, an excellent bait.
In England perch spawn in the spring, the eggs being held in a band-like mass of gelatinous matter deposited on weeds or the roots of trees not far below the surface of the water. The spawn, as a matter of fact, is often collected by fish-culturists and hatched out. Swans and water-fowl generally eat the eggs by the million, and wherever perch are preserved these birds should, so far as possible, be kept from the water during the spawning-season. At Henley and other places on the Thames those interested in fishery preservation place wire netting round the boughs and weeds where perch have spawned, to prevent the eggs being eaten by swans and ducks.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.