WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3467, 24 August 1920, Page 53

WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

Br the Hon. G. M. Thomson, F.L.S,

No. 98.—THE PERCH,

The perch (Perca fluviatilis) belongs to the family Percidae, a family not represented in the New Zealand, vndigeneous fish-fauna. It is one of the spinous fishes, and those who have caught one for the first time and grasped it carelessly to remove the hook, know by painful experience that its bony spinous fins can give a sharp stab. It reads like a fish story, but I knew of an angler in the Earn, in Perthshire, who had just hooked a mod-erate-sized perch, when a hungry pike rushed at it with open mouth. The perch immediately erected its spines, and the fisherman got botli fish ashore before the pike could free himself of his spiny prey. The perch is a handsome fish, its greenish brown body, passing by yellowish to the white belly, is marked zebra-like with dark transverse bars; the eyes have golden yellow irid-es; while the ventral, anal, and tail fins are bright vermilion. Old fish become more dull, and are less symmetrical in shape. It is said that perch up to 91b in weight have been taken in England, but this is an extreme weight. Manley, writing some 50 years ago, says: "Youthful, middle-aged, or grey-haired angler, if yon catch a 21b perch, be contented ; if a 31b, be happy; if a 41b, be superlatively rejoiceful, and invite all your piscatorial friends to an oyster supper; if one over 41b, you have accomplished the object of your life, and fulfilled your mission; vou have nothing else worth living for." Enthusiasts in still-water fishing are nearly as much engrossed in their sport as are golfers, and with quite as much, if not more, reason. Spawning in Britain takes place between April and June —the corresponding season in New Zealand being from October to December, but I have no record of their spawning in this country. A half-pound fish will contain as many as 280,000 eggs, while Picot, of ' Geneva, estimated the roes of a pound fish to contain 992,000 eggs. It is no wonder, therefore, that these fish increase very rapidly wherever they are liberated. The spawn is deposited in strings and ribands like festoons of pearls in and out among the weeds and on stone. Old Izaak Walton, who is always a charming and a. welcome authority on English fresh-water fish and fishing says :—"The Pearcn is a very good and a very bold-biting fish, that carries his teeth iii his mouth, not in his throat, and dares venture to kill and devour another fish; he spawns but once a year, and is by physicians held very nutritive ; yet by many to be hard of digestion. They have in their brain a stone, which is in forrain parts sold by Apothecaries, being there noted to be very medicinable against the stone in the reins. These be a part of the commendations which some Philcsophycal brain have bestowed upon the fresh-water Pearch.

"The Pearch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been credibly informed, to be almost two foot long; for my-In-former told me, such a one was not long since taken by Sir Abraham Williams, a gentleman of worth, and a lover of Angling, that yet lives, and I wish he may: this was a deep-bodied fish; and doubtless durst have devoured a Pike of half his own length; for I have told you, he'is a bold fish, such a one, as but for extreme hunger, the Pike will not devour; for to affright the Pike, the Pearch will set up his fins, much a 3 a_ Turkie-Cock will sometimes set up his tail.

"But, my scholer, the Pearch is not only valiant to defend himself, but he is a bold-biting fish, yet he will not bite at all seasons of the year; he is very abstemious in Winter; and hath been observed by some, not usually to bite till the Mulberry tree buds, that is "to say, till extreme frosts be past for that Spring; for when the Mulberry tree blossomes, many gardeners observe their forward fruit to be past the danger of Frosts; and some have made the like observation of the Pearches biting. But bite the Pearch will and that very boldly, and as one has wittily observed, if there be twentie or fortie in a hole, 'they may be at one standing all catch'd one after another; they being, as he says, like the wicked of the' world, not afraid, though their fellowes and companions perish in their sight.' " Every lover of nature and every angler should know Izaak Walton, who wrote thus in 1653 for that class of men who "hate contentions, and_ love quietnesse, and vertue, and Angling." The trout fisher of to-day scorns the patient angler who finds his pleasure in the quiet art of luring fish from the water by means of baited hooks in still pools, but for one who can afford to go trout-fishing there are a score who can only angle from a jetty or in a pond. My own memory carries me back to boyhood days, when it was "the delight of a summer's holiday to start out from home with a 10ft rod, cord line, and float, and a good box of worms in moss. The worms had been dug up a lay or two before and carefully moistened with drops of millc, which was supposed to toughen them. In one pocket was some lunch, in another a favourite book. Arrived at the scene of action—and the ponds, lochs, and canals near my home city of Edinburgh swarmed with perch—the hooks were baited, the line cast into the water, with the baits

some 4ft below the float, and we waited with the patience characteristic of the amateur fisherman, for a bite. Stretched on the greensward, or mounted in the fork of an overhanging tree, we pulled out the book and read with one eye on the text and the other on the float, till we saw the latter disappear under the surface. Then we hopped down, disengaged and bagged our fish, re-baited the hook, and again resumed our very partial but pleasant study. Perhaps jt was not 4 very exciting sport, but it belonged |o that quiet type of country life which is most refreshing and satisfying. The laie Mr A. H. Johnson claimed that he first introduced perch into New Zealand; he arrived in Christchurch in 1,864 from the Old Country. His first Shipment of 200 fish by the British Empire in that year was, however, unsuccessful, and I cannot find when his next venture was made. In July, 1868, three perch were received from Hobart by the Otago Society, and these were turned into the Ross Creek Reservoir, which supplies Dunedin with water. In September of the same year Mr Clifford landed 19 more from Hobart, and these were placed in the same reservoir. In 1870 18 more were landed. These fish increased, and were spread far and wide through Otago—namely, to Lawrence, Clvdevale, Raitangata, Gore, Tapanui, Waikouaiti, Waihemo, Otekaike, Elderslie, etc. They were also sent to Ashburton, to the Canterbury Society, and to Nelson. The Otago Society's report for 1891 saj's :—"These fish are becoming very numerous. Kaitangata Lake and Lovell's Creek are simply swarming with them." In 1892 the report is:—"Perch are still on the increase. . ■. . Some have been

caught weighing as much as 51b." Also in 1868 the Canterbury and Southland Societies received perch from Hobart. The annual report of the former society for 1871 says:—"They have successfully multiplied, and no further importations are needed." In 1883 Mr Shury, of Ashburton, reported to the Canterbury Society that "perch in large numbers could be seen in some streams on the Wakanui road,". and the report of the society for the following year shows that they were extremely abundant in the district. As to" the North Island. In 1877 the W.iingatruf> Society imported about 600 perch from Ballarat, Victoria: —"They were put into canvas bags filled with water and slung on frames on board ship. They arrived in capital order." A second consignment was not so successful, about half dying. In 1878 the Wellington Society got about two dozen fish from Wanganui, and placed them in the Wellington Reservoir. In 1886 they were very numerous, and several lots were placed in lagoons in the Wairarapa and in lakes near Otaki. In 1885 the Hamilton Domain Board obtained 100,000 ova from Canterbury, and liberated them in the. Waikato district. In 1887 the Taranaki Society obtained a number from Canterbury, and Mr W. W. Smith, writing from New Plymouth in February, 1916, said -.—" They are common in the district. Though introduced many years' ago, I have not seen any large specimens." They are now also to be found at Lake Mahinapua on the West Coast, and in all settled districts they are quite common.