§86 
P E R C A. 
ifn, and dotted with black. The upper furface is filvery 
brown, the under parts filvery white. The eyes are large; 
irides yellow; the noftrils double the end of the fnout 
blunt; head, body, and tail, compreffed. Length four 
inches, height one and a half. It is pleafant food; found 
in the frefti-water rivers of Carolina, in North America. 
19. Perea fafeiatus, the banded perch: tail ftraight; 
colour brown and white, with feven or eight tranfverfe 
brown (tripes or bands ; opercula very little ferrated. 
20. Perea perculus,the round-tailed perch : tail round¬ 
ed ; 27 rays in the fecond dorfal ; colour greyifi, with 
eleven or twelve oblique lines upon each fide. The 
brown-grey of the body is (haded with white on the 
belly. The ventral fins are yellowith; anal and pectorals 
variegated yellow and browm ; the irides are brown above, 
filver or gold on the reft of the furface. 
21. Perea Nilotica, the Nile perch: the dorfal fins 
hardly diftinft; tail entire. Eight rays in the firft dor¬ 
fal, -i in the fecond, 14 in the pectorals, £ in the ventrals, 
■jS-j in the anal, and 15 in the tail. Inhabits the river 
Nile and the Cafpian Sea. 
II. Dorfal Fin fingle. Tail undivided. 
22. Perea undulata, the undulated perch : dorfal fins 
hardly united ; body brown, waved ; a brown (pot at the 
peftoral fins. Ten rays in the firft dorfal fin, ^ in the 
fecond as far as they can be diftinguiftied, 18 in the pec¬ 
torals, £ in the ventrals, ■£§ in the anal, and 19 in the 
tail. Inhabits Virginia and Carolina, where it is called 
the cruker: the feales are red ; the eyes gold-colour; the 
gullet is wide, and there are feveral rows of little teeth 
in the jaws. Length three feet. Five (hort teeth in the 
anteriorgill-covert. Tail red, “and entire,” fays Gmelin ; 
but Catefby deferibes it otherwife. 
23. Perea ocellata, the ccellatc-d perch: dorfal fins 
hardly united ; a black ocellate (pot encircled with white 
at the bafe of the tail. Ten rays in the firft part of the 
dorfal fin, in the (econd, 16 in the peftorals and tail, 
6 in the ventrals, in the anal. Noted at Carolina by 
Dr. Garden; called there the bafl'e. The firft ray of the 
dorfal and ventral fins very (hort. 
24. Perca.argus, the argus perch : filvery bluifh, with 
numerous ocellate brown fpots. This fpecies, which is 
added by Turton, though he dees not fay from what 
fource, grows to about the length of a foot, and is a very 
beautiful fifh. The fpots on the body are white in the 
centre 5 thofe on the head, peftoral and ventral fins, 
(mailer, without the white centres. 
25. Perea marina, the fea-perch : red, with 7 tranfverfe 
du(ky lines on the (ides; a black fpot on the gill-coverts; 
dorfal (pines 15. In the dorfal fin ■!-*- rays, in the pec¬ 
torals 19, ventrals £, anal tail 14. This is caught in 
the Mediterranean Sea, about Norway, and in other Euro¬ 
pean feas; a foot in length. Head large, deformed; 
fnout long and pointed ; teeth final!, numerous ; ftrong 
fpines on the head and gill-coverts. Eyes large. It is 
good food. The dorfal, anal, and tail, fins, are often 
yellow with darker fpots ; and fometimes there are red 
lines on the peftorals. On the annexed Plate, at fig. 2. 
is (hown a fcale of the fea-perch of the natural fize, and 
the fame magnified at fig. 3. from Adams’s Eft'ays on the 
Microfcope. 
26. Perea fcandens, the climbing perch : dorfal fin witli 
\\ rays; feales rough, with a whitilh denticulate edge. 
Twelve rays in each peftoral fin, \ in the ventrals, in 
the anal, and 17 in the tail. This fpecies was difeovered 
at Tranquebar in Nov. 1791, by Lieut. Daldorff, and is 
deferibed in the Linnsean Tran lad't ions, vol. iii. p. 62. It 
has the very lingular faculty of climbing up trees by 
means of the fpines on the opercula and the fpinous rays 
of the dorfal and anal fins, aided by the motion of the 
tail. It was obferved in a cleft in the bark of a fan-palm 
more than fix feet above the rivulet; and when dilturbed 
began to mount higher with apparent facility; when 
?aken down it crawled along upon the fand, and lived 
more than four hours out of the water. The body is co¬ 
vered with a black (limy mucus, which is very abundant 
on the opercula; and the natives of Tranquebar think 
the wounds made by the opercular fpines very dangerous, 
probably on account of the introduction of fome drops 
of that mucus, which they fuppofe to be poifonous. The 
upper furface is du(ky green, lighter on the fides, pale 
golden beneath. Length one palm. Mouth toothed 
each fide before the lips; front porous, the feales with 
an entire edge. Eyes lateral, flat; pupil large, black, 
iris finning golden. Gill-covers fealed, fpinous, the 
middle fpines longer. Dorfal and anal fins, when folded, 
hid in a longitudinal cavity; peftorals oblong, obtufe; 
ventrals fomewhat connected, reddilh; tail a little 
rounded,the rays bifid. 
27. Perea nobilis, the handfome perch: body filvery 
with eight brown bands. In the dorfal fin £|- rays, pec¬ 
torals 15, ventrals £, anal tail 17. Inhabits North 
America. The fpinous rays of the dorfal fins are filvery 
at the fides; the orifices of the noftrils are at the end of 
a kind of tube or cylinder. 
28. Perea polymna, the tontelton : brown, with three 
white bands, the middle one pafling through part of the 
dorfal fin. There are fix rays in the membrane of the 
gills, 16 in the peftoral fins, £ in the ventrals, t 3 j- in the 
anal, 14 in the tail, and in the dorfal. The head is 
fmall, declining, and covered with little hard ferrated 
feales. The mouth is narrow; the jaws of equal length, 
and armed with a number of fmall teeth, the longed in 
front. The tongue and roof of the mouth are fmooth ; 
but there are two bones in the gullet with teeth like a 
file. The noftrils are fingle, and round ; .the pupil of the 
eye black, the iris blue. On the inner fide of the front 
operculum is a fingle gilj, and there is a furrow in the 
edge of the hinder one; this laft is much more ferrated 
than the former; the aperture of the gills is wide, and 
the membrane loofe. The trunk is broad; the back (harp, 
the belly round. The lateral line is interrupted near the 
end of the dorfal, and appears again in the middle of the 
tail. The ground colour is a light brown, making an 
agreeable contrail with the three white (tripes edged with 
black. The rays of the ventral and peftoral fins are 
branched, except the prickly rays; the (oft rays of the 
other fins are bifurcated. It is a fmall fi(h ; native of the 
Eaft Indies and South America. See the Plate, fig. 4. 
( 3 . There is a variety of this fpecies, which differs in 
the following particulars only : It is longer; the fins are 
edged with black, and are partly afli-colour; the middle 
band has a double border, black and white; and the la¬ 
teral line is continued without interruption. 
29. Perea merra, the Japan perch : body white, with 
numerous brown fpots ; lower jaw longed; the pofterior 
gill-covert fpiny; tail-fin rounded. The membrane of 
the gills has five rays, the peftoral fins 15, the ventrals 
£, the anal -j 3 t , the tail 16, the dorfal The body is 
long, the head (loping; the jaws are armed with (hort 
and pointed teeth, of which the two in front are the long- 
eft ; the tongue is fmooth and at liberty, the palate is ex- 
afperated with little teeth. The noftrils are fingle, and 
nearly mid-way between the mouth and eyes; the pupil 
is bluifli in a filvery iris. Under the front operculum ap¬ 
pears the fingle gill; three fpines diftinguilh the fecond. 
The gills have a wide aperture, and the membrane is for 
the mod part at liberty. The (cales are very fmall, hard, 
and ferrated. The fpots are brown, lighter towards the 
belly, and nearly round. The back is brown, the belly 
white, the fins tranfparent, and covered with fpots fimiiar 
to thofe on the body and head ; there is a furrow on the 
back to receive the dorfal fin. The fea of Japan produces 
this fi(h, where it is called by the natives ikan merra, which 
fpecific name Bloch has preferved in his new genus of 
Epinephelus, or wall-eye. This filh is reprefented at fjg.5. 
. 30. Perea cottoides, the bull-head perch: two dotted 
lines acrofs all the fins. In the dorfal ig rays, in the pec¬ 
torals 14, ventrals f, anal-j 3 o, caudal 12. Brown fpots, 
almoft 
