SEA-PERCHES. 



147 



favourable situations and may weigh as much as 25 lbs. It is 

 one of the most esteemed of fresh-water fishes. It has been 

 proposed to naturalise the fish in British waters, but its voracity 

 renders it an undesirable inhabitant of streams where Trout and 

 other valuable fishes are kept. 



The Sea-perches constitute a very large family, the Serranidse, 

 widely distributed around the shores of all. tropical and temperate 

 seas, while a few are found in the depths of the ocean. They 

 differ from the Percidae in having a ledge of bone projecting 

 internally from the second suborbital bone to support the eyeball, 

 and in other osteological characters. Some of the Sea-perches 

 attain to a great size, witness the Epinephelus lanceolatus in 

 Table-case 40, which is 7 feet 3 inches long, and the Stereolepis 

 gigas in Table-case 46, which is 5 feet long. The species of these 

 large fishes are rather difficult to determine, and the name Jew-fish Jew-fish. 



Sea- 

 perches. 

 Wall- 

 case 13. 





Fig. 67. — A Sea-perch, Serranus cabrilla. 

 (From Boulenger, Camb. Nat. Hist., vii, 1904, after Cuv. et Val.) 



is applied indiscriminately to any large specimens of Stereolepis 

 or Epinephelus. The specimen of Epinephelus cernioides, 1103, 

 although not so large as the two fishes just mentioned, is of 

 interest in having been caught in British waters, namely, off the 

 coast of Loo in Cornwall. As a general rule these large fishes are 

 of a uniform dull brown or greenish colour, in striking contrast 

 with the spotting and banding in the young — compare, for 

 instance, the young of Epinephelus lanceolatus, 523, Wall-case 13, 



l2 



