46 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
to Cuvier and Steindachner, the fish generally has 
small black spots irregularly scattered over the body. 
In other respects our figure is calculated to give a 
correct idea of the appearance of the fish. By the 
character given first in our diagnosis of the species 
it is distinguished from the American species of the 
genus, and by the two last characters from Iloccus 
punctatus a , the species found in the Mediterranean, off 
the coasts of the Spanish Peninsula, the west coast of 
France and the island of Teneriffe. In southern waters 
it often attains a length of 1 m., but the largest spe- 
cimens found in Scandinavia have been about 350 mm. 
in length, measured from tip of the snout to the end 
of the middle rays in the caudal fin. 
The fame of the Sea-perch dates from the early 
classical times * * * * 6 . Aristotle described it and knew — 
among other things — that it betakes itself to the river- 
mouths to spawn. Archestrates calls the Sea-perch 
of Miletus the ‘child of the gods’. For its voracity 
(jiaQcc xr\v ZafjcjoTri ra) it received the name of labrax 
among the Greeks, and for the same reason the Romans 
called it wolf {lupus). But it was also considered a 
very sagacious creature. It enjoyed the reputation of 
being able, if enclosed in a net, to dig a hole in the 
sand in order to escape, and when taken on the hook, 
to enlarge the wound and thus get free. A fact which 
has been demonstrated by Americans 0 and Englishmen 6 ' 
in our own times, was also known then, namely, that 
the Sea-perch may be kept alive in fresh water and 
that when it is so kept, the delicate flavour of its flesh 
increases. The Romans most highly esteemed the Sea- 
perch which lived in the dirty water of the Tiber, 
between the two l) ridges, a taste which was long ago 
(in the fifteenth century) stigmatised by Rondelet as 
unwholesome. 
The habitat of this fish is the Mediterranean with 
the adjoining parts of the Atlantic, as far as England 
and Ireland. Off the east coast of England it begins 
to be rare and is still rarer farther north, though, 
according to Collett, solitary specimens wander as 
high up as Tromso. The first time it was found and 
recognised in Scandinavian waters, it was described by 
Dr. Schagerstrom from a specimen taken in August, 
1829, off Hven in the Sound. Subsequently, to the 
best of our knowledge, it has been met with four times 
in Bohusl&n. 
In its way of life the Sea-perch is described as re- 
sembling on the whole the common Perch. “Sometimes, 
says Winther, “it lies still on the watch for its prey 
and sometimes wanders along the coast.” The largest 
shoals are met with during the sardine-fishing, and in 
a way it does the fishermen good service, for by its 
pursuit of the sardines it keeps them in continual fright 
and confusion and thus drives them into the nets. For 
this reason its appearance is welcomed when the sar- 
dine-fishing is good, but when it is bad, the Sea-perch 
is blamed for driving the fish away. On account of its 
voracity it is most easily taken on the hook with a 
bait of sardines, shrimps, worms or something of the 
kind. On the south coast of England and the coast of 
France it is caught with a rod and line or with night- 
lines off the pier-heads and rocks. It is also taken in 
large quantities in autumn, when it comes to the mouths 
of the rivers or presses into the bays in order to spawn, 
and is then cut off at low-tide by the fishermen’s nets. 
Almost all the year round it is taken to the markets 
of Paris, where it is highly esteemed for its firm, 
white, boneless and delicate flesh, except when it has 
been feasting on sardines, which give its flesh an un- 
bearable taste of train-oil. The American Iloccus 
lineatus, which in many respects closely resembles the 
Sea-perch, is one of the fishes most highly valued 
by the sportsmen of that country, even for fly- 
fishing 0 . 
“ Gunther, Brito Capello and Steindachner, see Stzber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, LVI, i (1867) p. 607. Cf. also Moreau, Hist. Nat. 
Poiss. Fr., II, p. 337. According to Jordan and Gilbert (1. c.) the cycloid scales on the cheeks also separate Roccus lineatus and R. chry- 
sops from the subgenus Morone (see above); but in the specimen of R. lineatus which the Royal Museum has received from the Smithsonian 
Institution, this distinction does not hold good. 
6 Cf. Cuv., Val., 1. c. 
c Roosevelt, The Game Fish, New York 1884, p. 204 (R. lineatus ). 
d Day, Fish. G:t Brit. a. Irel., I, p. 9. 
e Roosevelt, 1. c. 
