Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/75

Rh seven. The scales are rough, hard, and detached with difficulty.

The Common Perch (Perca fluviatilis, .) is well known, not only to the angler, but to almost every country child; for it inhabits most of our lakes and rivers, especially where the banks are steep, and is so bold as to bite at nearly any bait. Hence this is usually the first fish that rewards the infant angler’s enterprise.

It scarcely yields to any of our native Fishes in

beauty; its form is compact and powerful, and its colours attractive, especially when seen through the clear water in which it is playing. Its aspect,