CHAJPTEE Vin. 



PERCID^, OR PERCHES. 



Neo te delicias mensarum Perca silebo. — Auson. 



T) Y far the greater number of scaly .fish belong to the 

 -*-' order Acanthopterygii, or those with spinous fins. 

 The first family of this great section are the Percidse, which 

 includes, as all large and artificial divisions of species 

 necessitates, many ill-consortiag members, most of whom, 

 however, are so far associated as to possess in common 

 an oblong body, invested with hard rough scales, serrated 

 or spinous giU-flaps, and jaws, vomer, and palate well, 

 furnished with teeth. 



Besides the well-known river-perch, which lends its 

 name to the rest, there are many other distinguished 

 percidse worthy of separate notice : among the more re- 

 markable of these are the labrax, of Greek and Latin 

 notoriety; the serranus, or x*^^ o^ ^^^ Greeks — that 

 wondrous hermaphrodite, which, 



Self-ooncipient, breeds from no embrace, 

 Conmningles roes, and multiplies its race ;* 



the Mediterranean barber (anthias sacer) cased in glitter- 

 ing scales, which from ruby turn yellow and then white; 



* 'Exse 



Concipiens cbanne gemino fraudata parente.' — Ovid. 

 Aristotle also speaks of a fish, which contains both sexes in its 

 own person ; it is probable that this was the species intended, 

 since Cavolini has ascertained that the roe of the Serranus (Cu- 

 vier) is half soft and half hard, — that is, contains both male mUt 

 and female ovary. These two portions operate upon each other, 

 and the acts of begetting and conceiving are one. 



