BLOCK'S GURNARD. 



Bloch, also, plate 59, considered this fish as the T. cuculua 

 of Linnseus : Klein, however, appears to have been of a 

 different opinion ; and Cuvier and M. Valenciennes have 

 given it as a distinct species. Risso has also described it 

 as a distinct species, among his Fishes of the Mediterranean, 

 under the name of Granaou, T. cuculus, and says the first 

 spinous ray of the first dorsal fin is the longest ; which is 

 not the case in the common T. cuculus. Compared with 

 the common cuculus, (the true T. cuculus of Linnseus, 

 the first of the Gurnards described and figured in the pre- 

 sent work,) Block's Gurnard will be found to have the 

 body longer and narrower, the head smaller but more power- 

 fully armed, the pectoral fins short, not reaching to the anal 

 fin, and the first dorsal fin having a conspicuous black spot 

 on the margin of the membrane connecting the fourth, fifth, 

 and sixth rays. The spot on the first dorsal fin, however, 

 must not be considered as sufficient alone to identify this 

 species ; as two specimens under comparison, both having 

 this black spot, are in reality only varieties of the Grey 

 Gurnard. 



Montagu considered the Red Gurnard, described in the 

 Memoirs of the Wernerian Society already quoted, as dis- 

 tinct from the Grey Gurnard ; but has certainly described 

 the common Red Gurnard under the term lineata, consider- 

 ing this word as applicable to the linear elevations along the 

 side which cross the lateral line, and which induced Bloch to 

 call the species T. pini. This character is shown in the 

 woodcut of the Red Gurnard, but is scarcely perceptible, 

 from its diminished size, without the assistance of a lens. 



Not possessing a specimen, the description of Colonel 

 Montagu is adopted. " The forehead is more sloping than 

 that of the Grey Gurnard ; the nose armed with three spines 

 on each side ; the spine on the operculum of the gills, and 

 that behind it, are long and rough ; lateral line and ridge of 



