XU PERCID.E. 



that gentleman had favoured me with a drawing, as an unde- 

 scribed species of the genus Serranus of Cuvier. At that 

 time I had not seen a specimen of the fish. The Rev. 

 R. T. Lowe, who has devoted great attention to fishes, par- 

 ticularly those taken at Madeira, where he has resided many 

 years, first intimated to me that this, my supposed new Ser- 

 ranus, which I had called Couch's Serranus, in reference to a 

 naturalist and a friend, from whom I had received so much 

 valuable assistance, was in fact the Polyprion cernium of 

 Cuv. & Val. Hist, des Poiss. t. iii. p. 21, a species well 

 known to him, being a common fish at Madeira, and which is 

 now known to range as far to the south as the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Since that time Mr. Lowe has sent me from Madeira 

 a fine and perfect specimen of this fish, which I have shown 

 to several good observers on our southern coast, where Mr. 

 Couch's Stone Basse occurs, who have no doubt that this 

 fish is the same as the Stone Basse of Mr. Couch ; and it 

 therefore now appears in its place among the British Fishes 

 under its most recent systematic appellation. I am still, 

 however, anxious to identify this species with the name of 

 Mr. Couch, who first made it known as a British fish, and 

 have therefore now called it Couch's Polyprion. 



This species was the subject of a particular memoir by 

 M. A. Valenciennes, published in the Mem. du Mus. t. xi. 

 as already quoted, and is remarkable in having escaped the 

 observation and record of all the early ichthyological writers, 

 although the fish is common in the Mediterranean, attains a 

 large size, sometimes weighing one hundred pounds, and 

 measuring five or six feet in length. Mr. Baker, of Bridge- 

 water, tells me that this fish, of three feet in length, is not 

 uncommon in the Bristol Channel. Mr. Couch, in reference 

 to its habits, says, " This species approaches the Cornish 

 coast under peculiar circumstances. When a piece of timber, 

 covered with barnacles, is brought by the currents from the 



