7 he Hiftory ^ANIMALS. 259 
fize. I was the lad fummer fifhing for pike on Whitlefea-meer in Cambridgedfire $ we 
laid only large baits that we might not take fmall fifh, and yet the greater part of thefe 
were taken by Pearch indead of pike ; few of thefe were lefs than a foot in length, 
and fome of them confiderably more. In Germany they have them dill larger. 
The antients were very well acquainted with this fifh. Aridode, iElian, and Athe- 
nasus call it Uspm; the Latin writers in general Perea ; Wooton, Bellonius, &c. Perea 
fluviatilis; Aldrovand, Perea fluviatilis major j and Schoneveldt, Jonfton, and others, 
Perea major : the Italians call it Perfego; the Germans, Borfifch. 
Perea pallida maculofa dentibus duobus utrinque 
majoribus . %\)t . 
*Ihe pale fpotted Perea , with two large teeth on ©tllffe* 
each fide. 
This is a confiderably large fpecies; it grows frequently to two feet in length, and 
fometimes to confiderably more than that: the head is comprefled and large, and the 
opening of the mouth is very large, but not fo enormoufly great, in proportion to the 
fize of the fifii, as in the common pearch : the bread is flat, but the belly is convex 5 
the head is narrower and longer, in proportion, than in the common pearch : the 
back is convex, but it is not elevated as in that fpecies, and the body toward the tail is 
more long and flender: the noftrils are large, and have each a double aperture j the 
anterior is round, and has a little valve : the eyes are very large, and are of a fomewhat 
elliptic figure ; they ftand at a great diftance from one another: the pupil is roundifh; 
the iris is of a mixt filvery, yellowifh, and blackifh-blue : the upper jaw, when the 
mouth is (hut, falls a little way over the under, but it is very inconfiderable : the co¬ 
verings of the gills are long j they are compofed of four bones, feeming to form 
only two larger, as is the cafe in the common pearch, and of feven crooked ofiicula 
connected by a membrane : the lamina, which .is neared the eye, is large, and is fer- 
rated round it’s lower edges, and aculeated; and the lower lamina is alfo ferrated a lit¬ 
tle, and does not terminate in a bony apophyfis, as in the common pearch : three 
of the laminae are covered with fmall feales, but this is mod didin&ly vifible in the 
full-grown fifli; the clavicles con fid each of four bones, the lowed or larged of which * 
has it’s origin below that of the pedoral fin, and the fird and third are fomewhat 
acute. 
The head is blackilh on the upper part, and has there a long depreflion or furrow, 
reaching from the nodrils nearly to the back j from the extremity of this to the 
back fin there runs alfo a narrower furrow, but this is not fo confpicuous: the la¬ 
teral line is draight, and runs much nearer the back than the belly : the feales are hard 
and rough, and are driated in their hinder part; thofe on the belly are white, and on 
the fides they are of a white colour alfo, but tinged in an elegant manner, with a cad 
of a gold yellow and a filvery white 5 on the back the colour is a dufky greyilh-brown, 
and there are in this part a great many oblong black fpots, partly placed tranfverfely, 
and partly quite without order. \\ 
The teeth in both the jaws are of an equal fize: in the upper jaw there are two 
very large and long ones near the extremity, but with a fpace between them 5 behind thefe 
the jaw is furnifhed each way with a Angle feries of fmaller teeth, and between the 
two great ones in the front there are two fmaller, which, when the mouth is clofed, 
dand out beyond the lower jaw : the lower jaw has alfo, near it’s extremity, fometimes 
two large teeth on a fide, fometimes only one; thefe form to themfelves a kind of ca¬ 
vity in the upper jaw, and between them there is alfo a vacant fpace, and behind 
them, each way, there runs a Angle row of teeth, fmaller but unequal: on the ante¬ 
rior part of the palate there alfo dand two large teeth, with two, three, or more 
fmaller ones between them ; on the extream verge of the palate, each way, there is 
a Angle row of fmall teeth; the red of the palate is fmooth; in the fauces alfo 
there are feveral bones furnifhed with teeth : there are two large and roundifh ones on 
the upper part, and on the lower there are fix fmaller, all covered with teeth, and fo 
lituated, with regard to one another, that they feem to form only two larger bones of 
an oblong form. 
The tongue is white, fmooth, and loofe, not fadened down to the jaw, as in 
many other fpecies: the pectoral fins are whitifh j they have fixteen rays each j they ; 
are 
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