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 
