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 Acantho-pterygii^ that they 

 appear in an exaggerated degree in the next family to the 

 Percida^ namely, th.Q. Squamipinnes, or scaly-finned fish. These 

 are distinguished from the true perches by the scales v/hich 

 extend over the membranes of dorsal and anal fins. A few 

 only of the innumerable genera and species of Squamipinnes 

 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 Squami- 

 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 sandrd), 

 a large fish running to the weight of 20 lb. or 30 lb., 



