Note 349 — BOOK III

The channa is a kind of sea-perch; “a species of Serranus, either S. scriba or S. cabrilla” (D’Arcy W. Thompson). cf. Aristotle’s Nat. Hist. (D’Arcy Thompson’s edition, Oxford, 1910), IV., xi., 538 A, 20. The synodont “is not to be identified with certainty, but is supposed to be Dentex vulgaris,” that is, an edible Mediterranean perch. “It is not the stomach,” adds Prof. Thompson, “but the air-bladder that gets everted and hangs out of the mouth in fishes, especially when they are hauled in from a considerable depth.” cf. H. A., VIII., ii., 591 B, 5.