334 PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. [PERCA. 



A single individual of this species, which is found in the Mediter- 

 ranean, has heen obtained by Mr. Couch from the coast of Cornwall. 

 Cuvier states that nothing is known of its habits, excepting that at 

 Nice it approaches the shores in the months of May and April. Usual 

 weight from ten to twenty pounds. 



(1.) Serranus Couchii, Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 12. Stone-Bas-se, 

 Couch in Linn. Trans, vol. xiv. p. 81. 



This fish, which has been observed by Mr. Couch on the Cornish coast, 

 accompanying floating timber covered with barnacles, remains yet to be 

 identified with certainty. It was considered by that gentleman, in his 

 paper in the Linneean Transactions, as the Pagrus totus argenteus of 

 Sloane*, a species, however, to which it evidently bears no affinity. 

 Mr. Yarrell, who has received an original drawing of the fish from 

 Mr. Couch, regards it as a new species of Serranus, and accordingly 

 names it after its first discoverer. No description of it has been yet 

 published. 



(4. ACERINA, CUV.) 



5. P. Cemua, Linn. (Common Ruffe.) Back and 

 sides olivaceous, spotted with dusky brown. 



P. Cernua, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 487. Block, Ichth. pi. 5. 

 f. 2. Don. Brit. Fish. vol. n. pi. 39. Cernua fluviatilis, Flem. 

 Brit. An. p. 212. Acerina vulgaris, Cuv. et Vol. Poiss. torn. in. 

 p. 4. pi. 41. Cuv. Reg. An. torn. n. p. 144. Ruffe, Will. Hist. 

 Pise. p. 334. tab. X. 14. f. 2. Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 259. 

 Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. p. 350. Bowd. Brit. fr. wat. Fish. 

 Draw. 10. Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 18. 



LENGTH. From six to eight inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Not so high in the back as the Perch, and less 

 compressed in proportion ; head broader, thicker, and more obtuse about 

 the snout : greatest depth at the commencement of the dorsal fin, equal- 

 ling one-fourth of the entire length, including caudal; thickness two- 

 thirds of the depth : eyes very large and brilliant ; their diameter one- 

 fourth of the length of the head : mouth rather small ; upper jaw a little 

 the longest; both jaws, as well as the vomer, armed with fine teeth like 

 velvet ; pharyngeans card-like : head without scales ; the snout, cheeks, 

 and jaws, pitted with numerous excavations : preopercle with the ascend- 

 ing and basal margins strongly spined; posterior angle of the opercle 

 terminating in a small spine : gill-opening very large : lateral line nearly 

 parallel with the back; its course at rather less than one-third of the 

 depth: dorsal commencing in a line with the posterior angle of the 

 opercle; first ray very short; the succeeding ones gradually lengthen- 

 ing to the fourth and fifth, which are longest, then decreasing to the 

 fourteenth, or last of the spinous rays ; soft portion of the fin rather more 

 than half the length of the spinous ; middle rays longest, the last ray 

 double : anal commencing a little nearer the caudal than the soft dorsal, 

 and not extending quite so far; first two rays strongly spinous and 

 slightly curved : finless portion of the tail about equal in length to the 

 caudal ; this last deeply forked : pectorals in a line with the commence- 

 ment of the dorsal, and two-thirds the length of the head ; all the rays 

 soft, and, except the first and last, branched; middle rays longest: vent- 



* Nat. Hist, of Jam. vol. n. tab. 253. f. 1. 



