46 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
contour the distinguishing features of the type. The same 
characteristics may be seen in the sea-perches of the Indian 
Pacific, such as Diagramma orientale. These fish sometimes 
reach a length of three or four feet. The features of the 
family are greatly exaggerated in another sea-perch of the 
Indian Ocean, Gerranus altivelis. People bathing at Aden 
and the Seychelles have been known to be attacked by a 
gigantic perch—a species of Serranus not accurately identified— 
and to have died of the injuries inflicted on them. 
Most of these fish of the Perch Family, bewildering in their 
variety, remain faithful to their title of the striped or barred 
fish. Sometimes the distinction is reduced to a single blotch 
on either side, as in Mesoprion monostigma from the Indian 
Archipelago. So strongly have the features most character- 
istic of our British perch, namely, its stripes and spiny fins, 
been impressed upon the order Acanthopterygii, that they 
appear in an exaggerated degree in the next family to the 
Percide, namely, the Sguamipinnes, or scaly-finned fish. These 
are distinguished from the true perches by the scales which 
extend over the membranes of dorsal and anal fins. A few 
only of the innumerable genera and species of Sguamipinnes 
may be mentioned as illustrating the strange modifications 
which physical surroundings impress upon the original type. 
The archer fish— Ikansumpit” of the Malays (Toxotes 
jaculator)—earns its living in a truly sporting, refined manner. 
It shoots its prey, having the power of discharging a drop of 
water at an insect hovering over the surface of the water or 
resting on a leaf with so true an aim as to bring it down, 
when the archer promptly swallows it. Chelmo rostratus, a fish 
of the tropical seas, belonging to the same family of Sguami- 
pinnes, exercises the same curious art. 
Before closing these observations on the relations of the 
perch, mention must be made of a very formidable member 
of the family, the pike-perch, or zander (Lucioperca sandra), 
a large fish running to the weight of 20 lb. or 30 Ib., 
