Perca. 377 



I feel some hesitation in describing this species as distinct from 

 the Chironectes Icevigatus^ Cuv., with which it accords in general 

 smoothness, in the form and position of the appendages of the 

 head, and in the arrangement of the cirrhi. The colours are 

 moreover the same, but their disposition in the u4nt. nitidus is so 

 comparatively regular, and extends so much more over the body, 

 that I have been induced to characterize it. In a specimen of 

 the Ant, IcevigatuSy in the collection of the Zoological Society, 

 the only approach to the vittiform appearance is in the ferruginous 

 line which passes along the back ; below this, the deeper colour 

 is irregularly disposed, and exhibits a tendency to run together : 

 the continued series passing into the anal and pectoral fins, are by 

 no means to be traced. The examination of a greater number of 

 individuals might possibly lead to the discovery of intermediate 

 stages, but that which is figured is at least a strongly marked 

 variety. 



M. Cuvier states that his species is identical with the Lophie 

 unie of M. Bosc, a fact which he has ascertained by its comparison 

 with an original specimen presented by that authour to the Muse- 

 um d'Histoire Naturelle. Without so convincing a proof it would 

 have been impossible to conceive that a naturalist so eminent 

 as M. Bosc, could have been guilty of the many palpable errors in 

 description, that are to be met with in his account of his species. 

 He describes it as wanting the nasal filament and the cirrhi^ and 

 states that the processes of the head are glabrous : in all these 

 points he is contradicted by his own specimen. For the only ex- 

 cuse which can be advanced in his behalf he is indebted to 

 M. Cuvier, who suspects that he was prevented from examining it 

 accurately by the smallness of the individual, which did not ex- 

 ceed half an inch in length. 



Genus, Perca. La Cepede. 

 Peuca, (pars). L. 



puLCiiELLA. p. lineis longitudinalibus argenteo-cccrulescentibiis : 

 pinnarum dorsulium secunda radiis 13. 



