MAILED GURNARD. 69 



to eat upon this fish when it is small, those of the largest 

 size are the most in request. Duhamel gives the following 

 instructions for preparing this fish for the table : If it is in- 

 tended for stewing, it is necessary to soak it in warm water 

 in order to get off the skin and scales, which is mostly easily 

 effected by commencing the removal at the tail ; if it is 

 preferred to broil it, it is then only necessary to open the 

 body of the fish, and put inside fresh butter, fine herbs, and 

 seasoning to increase the flavour of the meat, which is white 

 and delicate. When it is sufficiently cooked the scales come 

 off easily. 



Dr. Moore very obligingly sent his British specimen of 

 this fish up to London that I might see it, and I found that 

 it exactly resembled an example from the Mediterranean in 

 my own collection, with which I compared it. 



The bones of the nose are very much elongated, forming 

 a projecting and forked snout of two broad and flattened 

 processes, which are each an inch in length, and parallel to 

 each other, half an inch apart at the base, on the upper sur- 

 face of which there are one large and two smaller niam- 

 millary protuberances. From the end of the elongated nasal 

 bone to the posterior end of the ridge on the cheek at the 

 base of the pectoral fin, the length is three inches and a half 

 in a fish of eleven inches, or rather less. The nasal, orbital, 

 and occipital ridges, are armed with numerous sharp tooth- 

 like processes. The orbit of the eye is oval, its greatest 

 length horizontal, the irides silvery ; the jaws are semicir- 

 cular in shape ; the form of the opening of the mouth, which 

 is without teeth, is also semicircular ; the length of the head, 

 from the point of the nasal bone to the end of the suborbital 

 ridge, is to the whole length of head, body, and tail together, 

 as one to three. 



The body is octagonal, covered with bony scales, or plates, 

 laid over each other like a coat of mail ; from the centre of 



