582 
PER 
PER 
PER AROO'R, a town of Hindooftan, in’the Carnatic: 
ten miles fouth of Tiagar. 
PERASEMAJO'KI, town of Sweden, in the province 
of Wafa: fifty miles eaft-north-eaft of Chriftineftadt. 
PERASH ACOT'TA, a town of Hindooftan : eighteen 
miles weft-north-weft of Coimbetore. 
PERAS'TA, a town of Albania, on the Cattaro. 
PERAS'TA, a town of European Turkey, in Roma¬ 
nia, on the coaft of the fea of Marmora: twelve miles 
north-eaft of Galipoli. 
PER'ASTORFF, a town of Auftria : five miles fouth- 
fouth-weftof Ips. 
PER'AVAIL. See Paravail, vol. xviii. 
PERAY' (St.)> a town of France, in the department 
of the Ardeche, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
trift of Tournon. The place contains 1652, and the 
canton 7492, inhabitants. 
PERBI'GA, a town of Hindooftan, in Bahar : forty- 
five miles fouth-fouth-weft of Patna. 
PERBUTPOU'R, a town of Hindooftan, in Allaha¬ 
bad : forty miles north-eaft of Gazypour. 
PER'CA, J\ [Lat. from Gr. of wspyo?, fpotted 
with black.] The Perch ; a genus of fifties of the order 
thoracici. Generic characters—Jaws unequal ; teeth 
ftiarp, incurved ; gill-covers fcaly, of three laminae, the 
upper ferrate ; gill-membrane feven rayed ; lateral line 
arched with the back; fcales (in moft fpecies) hard and 
rough ; fins moftly fpinous ; vent nearer the head than 
the tail. 
Of the numerous fpecies of perch, only three were 
known to the ancient Romans ; and, as a proof how 
greatly natural hiftory is improved in our own times, Ar- 
tedius knew but feven ; Bloch fays he has thirty unde- 
fcribed fpecies, moft of them from India ; yet he defcribes 
but five or fix, being the fpecies found in Germany. In 
order more eafily to diftinguifh the different fpecies, Lin¬ 
naeus divided them into two claffes ; in one he placed 
thofe with two dorfal fins, in the other thofe with only 
one, which he fubdivided into fuch as have the tail-fin 
divided or undivided. Only five fpecies are found in 
the lakes and on the coafts of Britain ; the river-perch, 
the fea perch, the bade, the ruffe, and the black perch. 
Thefe fifh are remarkably tenacious of life 5 fome of 
them, particularly the river-perch, have been carried fixty 
miles among ftraw, and have furvived the journey. 
Their fins are fo prickly, that they are faid to defy the at¬ 
tacks of the pike: this, however, is only true with re¬ 
gard to the larger perches, if it can be credited at all; 
for there is no animal which the pike will more readily de¬ 
vour than a fmall perch. From the eafe with which the 
river-perch is taken and tranfported, it has become the 
moft common inhabitant of our fifh-ponds, and affords a 
very wholefome and palatable food. See Gmelin’s Linn. 
1306. Turton’s Linn. 809. Bloch, ii. 56. Shaw’s Gen. 
Zool. iv. 545. and Cepede, iv. 248—428. which laft au¬ 
thor has feparated a confiderable part of the genus Perea, 
and Sciiena alfo, into a new genus Centropomus, from the 
Gr. xsvrfov, a fpine or prickle, and 1tu/au, the operculum, 
or gill-cover. He has alfo added feveral new fpecies, for 
fome of which he has inftituted new genera, but which 
we fhall bring, as nearly as poffible, into their proper 
places in this genus, and we fhall alfo fome of the new 
genera and fpecies of Bloch. 
I. Dorfal Fins two, diftinft. 
1. Perea fluviatilis, the common or river perch : eleven 
rays in the anal fin, the firft of them hard, and 16 foft 
rays in the fecond dorfal, are the fpecific character of 
this fifh. There are 7 rays in the membrane of the gills, 
14 in each pefforal fin, 5 in each ventral, 25 in the tail, 
15 in the firft dorfal. This is a very handfome fifh, efpe- 
cially when it has lived in pure clear water; it fparkles 
with gold-yellow and green, intermixed with ftripes of 
black; and the beauty is heightened by the contraft of 
its beautiful red fins. The aperture of the mouth is wide; 
the jaws of nearly equal length, armed with little ftiarp 
teeth; there are alfo fmall teeth in three different parts 
of the roof of the mouth, and in four different places in 
the gullet. The tongue is fhort and fmooth ; the nof- 
trils double, and not far from the eyes ; in front of the 
noftrils are two fmall apertures, the ufe of which is not 
knowm. The eyes are large ; the pupil is black ; the iris 
bluifti, edged with yellow within. The covers of the 
gills are fulmifhed with very fmall fcales ; the upper plate 
isjagged, and armed with fmall prickles towards the belly; 
the aperture of the gills is wide. The back is round ; 
there are fix bands or ftripes on each fide, of different 
lengths; and more of them in old fifh. The fcales are 
hard, and ftrongly fixed to the fkin. The belly is broad, 
and white ; the anus is nearer to the tail than to the 
head. The pedloral fins are of a reddifh colour; the 
ventrals, anal, and tail, are of a deep red ; and the dor- 
fals violet; the firft dorfal has a black fpot at the extre¬ 
mity, and the rays are hard ; in the other fins the rays 
are foft, fimple in the dorfals, branched in the reft. 
As this fifh is found in moft parts of Europe, the an¬ 
cients were acquainted with it; and among them it was 
deemed one of the firft delicacies of the table. Rondele- 
tious, and after him Gefner, blames the phyficians in his 
time for ordering the river-perch to their patients in fe¬ 
brile diforders, after a prefeription of Galen, who meant 
the fea-perch, a fifti much lighter, as he alleges, and ea- 
fier of digeftion. Experience, however, has fhown that 
this diftin&ion is made without a difference; both the 
fea and river kind being found equally palatable and fa- 
lubrious. In the timeof Willughby this prejudiceagainft 
the river-perch had been forgotten. It lives in frefli water, 
whether ftagnant or running. Its length is fometimes 
two feet; its common weight from three to fix pounds; 
fometimes in England they have been known to weigh 
nine pounds, but this is very rare; in Lapland and Sibe¬ 
ria they attain however a very confiderable fize; in a 
church in Lapland is preferved the dried head of a perch 
which is alrnoft a foot long; fo that the fifh muft have 
been at leaft fix feet long. According to Falck, this fifh 
is alfo found in Rufiia, in Siberia, in the diftrifts of the 
Kirgifes and the Songoriches, in the rivers and frefh-wa- 
ter lakes, and alfo in fuch falt-water lakes of which the 
waters, when moft fait, that is in fummer, do not con¬ 
tain more than a drachm of fait to 12 oz. of water. In 
the frefh and fait lakes of the diftridfs of Ifette, Ifchmia, 
and Baraba, they are found in plenty, where they grow 
only about a hand’s breadth long, and are rather bitter to 
the tafte ; the fifhermen gut them, and dry them well in 
the air and fun, having firft wrapped them in branches of 
willow. Falck faw many at Baraba and Kamfkoi in the 
open air, lying one over the other, but covered at top to 
defend them from the rain. They are then fold to cer¬ 
tain traders who travel moft of the year to buy dried fifh, 
particularly pike and carp, which they fell retail in diftant 
provinces. The perches fifhed up in the Rhine are much 
efteemed. There is an ancient proverb in SwifTerland, 
which proves its agreeable and falutary qualities to have 
been long known in that country ; and at Geneva they 
make a very delicate difh of the fmall perch they catch in 
the lake Leman, which, when prepared after their man¬ 
ner, they call mille cantons. 
This fpecies fpawns in April in fhallow places, and in 
May in thofe which are deeper. Their mode of excluding 
their ova is fingular: the female feeks for a pointed ftick 
orfomething of that kind, and fuffers it to enter the navel, 
and fqueefe the ovary; after that fhe recedes, making a 
kind of wriggling motion till the ova are all excluded, 
which are inclofed in a common fkin in form of a net ; 
this fkin, which is a perforated gut, is two inches thick, 
and two or three ells long, like the fpawn of frogs : 
when examined through a microfcope, four or five of 
thefe eggs are feen united by a hard fkin, and the fkin 
forms an angle where the eggs unite, fo that they appear 
fquare or hexagonal; in the middle of each egg, is a lit- 
