388 Mr YarrelPs History of British Fishes. 



tions are plain, simple, and unaffected ; entertaining enough for the 

 general reader, distinct and detailed for the man of science,; — can we 

 say more? When we earnestly recommend it to the British student 

 as the best guide to the Ichthyology of his country, and to the sci- 

 entific naturalist abroad as a work of much utility, perhaps its au- 

 thor will be satisfied. 



Having thus given our opinion of this excellent " History," let 

 us go into a little detail ; make our observations as they were noted 

 in reading through the book ; pick a fault or two, and exhibit a spe- 

 cimen of our author's style, which may excite the few naturalists 

 who want the work, to add one to their libraries which, so far <as 

 British Ichthyology is concerned, we deem indispensable. 



The volumes open with the Percidse and the common perch, a 

 beautiful fish and a beautiful figure. With the account of its dis- 

 tribution we differ from our author ; " and in this country there is 

 scarcely a river or lake of any extent where this fish does not occur 

 in abundance. It is found in most of the lakes of Scotland."* This 

 will do for the waters of the south ; but in the north of England it 

 is a rare river fish, still rarer in the same localities in Scotland, only 

 sparingly met with in the lochs north of the Forth, and in one or 

 two places where it is found north of Perthshire, we can trace its 

 introduction at no distant period. In all the almost countless wa- 

 ters of the northern counties the perch is wanting. Minnow is a 

 deadly bait for large perch. Couch's Serranus (Ser. Couchii, Yarr.) 

 dedicated to the indefatigable ichthyologist of Cornwall, though 

 formerly noticed in the Linnean Transactions, is figured for the 

 first time, and has not been identified with any of Cuvier and Va- 

 lenciennes's species. The details and anatomy of this fish are, how- 

 ever, still wanting, Mr Yarrell having wrought from a drawing 

 only. The weevers, Trachini, follow ; curious fish, and dreaded by 

 ordinary fishermen. The wound by the dorsal spines of T. draco 

 seems to have varied effect on different constitutions. Some, we 

 have heard, laugh at it, others describe the pain as intense and 

 burning. It is best to beware ; and in the French markets, where 

 it more frequently appears than in those of Britain, a penalty is in- 

 flicted on those who sell the fish without previously cutting off the 

 dorsal fin, which, as Drayton has it, " buyers seldom see." The les- 

 ser species seems common on all our sandy shores, and certainly sel- 

 dom exceeds five inches in length ; in the Solway Frith dozens are 

 taken every tide by the shrimpers. The wounds inflicted by the 

 fin and cheek spines seem only to produce slight inflammation around 



* Vol. i. p. 2. 

 4 



