10 FERCID.E. 



contained also a notice of a second species of the same genus, 

 and also several otlier interesting species in other genera, 

 some of which were likewise new. 



Both Cuvier and Mr. Couch refer the fish before us to the 

 Channus, or Channa, of Gesner, Ray, and Gmelin : this, 

 together with the peculiar habit of the Channus recorded by 

 Gesner, and observed by Mr. Couch to prevail in his Smooth 

 Perch — and the close resemblance between the descriptions 

 by Cuvier, in the Hist, des Poiss. t. ii. p. 223, and that by 

 Mr. Couch, in the Magazine before quoted — leave little 

 doubt that the Serranus cabrilla of Cuvier and Valen- 

 ciennes, and the Perca chatmus of Mr. Couch, are in reality 

 the same species. It has therefore been placed among the 

 British fishes, under the name of Smooth Serranus, which 

 the distinction of possessing but a single dorsal fin appears to 

 render necessary, and which, it is hoped, Mr. Couch will not 

 disapprove. 



This species of Serranus is abundant in the Mediterranean, 

 and passing in the ocean northward to a considerable distance, 

 is, in the opposite direction, taken as far south as TenerifFe 

 and Madeira. Mr. Couch considers it a common fish, well 

 known to the Cornish fishermen ; " that it keeps in the 

 neighbourhood of rocks not far from land ;" and adds, " it is 

 singular that the spasm, which seizes this fish when taken, 

 never passes oif : hence it is found, long after death, in a state 

 of rigidity and contortion, with the fins preternaturally erect." 



D. 10 + 14 ; P. 15 : V. 1 + 5 : A. 3 + 8 : C. 17. 



The peculiarities of the teeth and gill-cover arc expressed 

 in the generic characters : " the irides are yellow ; the body 

 about ten inches long, compressed, deep. Colour of the back 

 brown, in some specimens having distinct bars running round 

 to the belly; sides vcllow, reddish, or safTron-coloiircd, more 



