276 PERCOIDES. 



the creator of new genera and species, has introdu- 

 ced more confusion into works of natural history, 

 than can be expurgated in fifty years of common 

 sense to come. 



The universal distribution of this family has led 

 to some curious hypotheses of the manner in which 

 the ova were dispersed. About fifty years ago, all 

 at once, perch were discovered in all the lakes in 

 Ireland, and in the Shannon. 



Mr Clinton quotes the remark from Gmelin^ 

 that ducks may swallow the eggs of fishes and 

 eject them again, unhurt, so that they will after- 

 wards come to maturity. Adanson, in Africa, ob- 

 served small fishes, in morasses formed by recent 

 rains, which were red, and lively. Whenever the 

 water was evaporated they died, and after a new 

 rain others appeared like them. Within six or 

 seven years, early walkers discovered on Boston 

 common, one morning, an immense number of live 

 fishes on the grass. In this case the wind had an 

 agency. 



Dr Hosack, many years since, had an artificial 

 pond excavated in a botanic garden, which to 

 the utter surprise of everybody was speedily sup- 

 plied with little fish. All these instances of the 

 spontaneous birth offish are not so very miraculous 

 as would at first appear. Birds are the unques- 

 tionable agents in the transportation of the ova, 



