THE PEECH FAMILY. 55 



succession according to the classification of the same au- 

 thor, which is likewise, with some trifling exceptions, that 

 adopted by Yarrell in his ' History of British Fishes/ 



Although the researches of recent ichthyologists have 

 led to the suggestion of various modifications in this 

 system, such modifications are still to a certain extent 

 matters of individual opinion on the part of eminent men, 

 and necessarily lack that general sanction and assent which 

 only time can give, and which have been hitherto accorded 

 to Cuvier's arrangement. The latter is, moreover, com- 

 plete as a whole; and therefore, whilst by no means 

 ignoring the discoveries of contemporary science so far 

 as regards individual species, characteristics, &c., I have 

 avoided as far as possible any deviations from the system of 

 classification referred to, which might have tended to con- 

 fuse the subject to the mind of the general reader. But 

 to return : — 



The common Perch (Perca fluviatilis) is very generally 

 distributed over almost the whole of Europe and Great 

 Britain, and is a well-known inhabitant of our English 

 lakes and rivers from the Tweed to the Land's End. In 

 Wales it is a somewhat local fish, and confined principally 

 to stagnant waters ; in Ireland more widely difiused, though 

 still in distribution rather unequal ; in Scotland very gene- 

 ral south of the Frith of Forth, and comparatively rare to 

 the north of it, ceasing entirely amongst the innumerable 

 waters of Sutherland and Ross, or, where observed, owing 

 its introduction to very recent times. 



