THE PEKCH. 221 



well as fresh. Its most dangerous members are the 

 " stinging weever," or "sea dragon;" the "labrax," or 

 " sea wolf" (after whose name, in a Latin or Greek gradus, 

 is found such a string of epithets denoting his rapacity, 

 voracity, and fierceness, that they make one's very blood 

 run cold) ; and the " sky-gazer" of the Mediterranean, 

 whose form is as hideous, as his ichthyological title, JJra- 

 noscopos hemeroccetus," is sesquipedalian. The general 

 description of the Percidce family runs thus : — " Oblong 

 body, invested with hard, rough scales, serrated or spinous 

 gill-flaps, and jaws, vomer, and palate well furnished with 

 teeth;" to which should be added, " branchiostegous 

 rays," which, being interpreted, means that the perch has 

 bony, spinous fins, as some of us, perhaps, know — as some 

 ack have heretofore known — by painful experiment. I 

 hardly know which is the least easy to handle with any 

 substantial comfort — a perch, a red-hot coal, or a lively 

 hedgehog. A distinguishing feature of the perch is his 

 second dorsal fin. 



Dr. Badham gives us the origin of the word " Perch ;" 

 and on this point happily there are no labyrinthine 

 entanglements or etymological and almost endless ver- 

 bal wildernesses into which we can be led, as is the 

 case of the unde derivator of the terms "Jack" and 

 " Pike." Here all is plain sailing, and the whole course 

 is traversed quickly and without a tack. "Perch" (also 

 written " pearch") ; French, perche ; Latin, Spanish, and 

 Italian, perca, from the Greek perhe, the feminine of the 

 adjective perkos (Trip/cos), which signifies some dark colour, 

 though it is as difficult to say of what exact shade as it 

 is to define the ancient purpureus, usually translated 

 "purple," or the "glaucomatic" hue of Minerva's eyes. 



