THE PERCH FAMILY. ~r> 



have not measured more than twenty-nine inches in total length. In Lapland the skins of the 

 Perch are boiled in a bladder, so as to form a kind of glue. The head is two-sevenths of the 

 length of the body ; the teeth are small, and directed backward. There are also teeth on the 

 palatine bones. The upper part of the body is of a warm greenish-brown tint, becoming golden 

 at the sides and white on the belly. There are always broad dark bands of colour passing 

 vertically down the sides. In summer the Perch prefers the rapid parts of the stream, but in 

 winter the fish retire to deeper and quieter pools, where they herd together in large numbers. 



The genus Percichthys is confined to the fresh waters of tropical America and Java. Pava- 

 labrax is a genus limited to the rivers of California. Labrax has some species living in the 

 rivers and shores of North America, but is best known from the European species called the BASS 



(Labrax lupus), which is a marine Perch, having teeth on the tongue and only nine spines on the 

 first dorsal fin. There are scales on the gill-covers, as was pointed out by Aristotle. The species 

 is gregarious, and enters the mouths of rivers in autumn to deposit the spawn. The individuals feed 

 on various small fishes, such as young Whiting and the Sand Launce, and eat Shrimps and other 

 small Crustacea. They are more abundant on the south coasts of England and Ireland than farther 

 north, and range to France, Portugal, and the Mediterranean. 



Another fresh-water fish met with in the rivers of Europe, and closely resembling the Perch in 

 its habits, is the Acerina cernua, commonly known in England as the RUFFE, a name said to be 

 derived from the harsh sensation given by its ctenoid scales. It is of an olive-green colour, marbled 

 and spotted with brown. Many genera of this family are limited in their range. Percarina is 

 found only in the Dniester, Pileoma in the lakes and rivers of North America, Niphon is a genus 

 met with in the Japanese Sea, and Enoplosus occurs in the Australian seas. 



Another section of the Perch family has for its type the genus Serramis, which genus alone 

 comprises more than 130 species. It is represented in English seas by the Serranus cabrilla, or 



