block's gurnard. 31 



it cliiFers from the Elleck and Grey Gurnard. Under jaw 

 pointed, with a fleshy tubercle at the symphysis; the jaws 

 rough, with beds of fine teeth. Cheek-plates and gill-covers 

 very rough and striated, more so than in the Tubfish or 

 Elleck; the usual spines being stouter, and that one on 

 the upper portion of the hinder gill-plate much longer 

 than in either of the two last-named fishes. The second 

 or middle gill-plate has also two well-developed bifid spines 

 on its lower part, the uppermost longest. The markings 

 of the gill-plates will further distinguish this fish from our 

 other species, the two first being striated, the hindmost 

 punctulated, the roughness being as if dotted with a pin. 

 The ridge bordering the roots of the dorsal fins formed of 

 broad firm plates, which, when dried, appear marked with fine 

 teeth. Scales on the body thin, ciliated on their posterior 

 edge, and not arranged in regularly circular lines, as in the 

 Streaked Gurnard. Lateral line rough, and most rough pos- 

 teriorly, the roughness formed of small obtuse points; behind 

 the fins the body is round, with a depression in a line with 

 the margin of the tail. Pectoral fin five inches long, not 

 reaching to the vent, and less wide than in the Tubfish. The 

 longest finger less than four inches, the shortest two inches 

 and a half. The first ray of the spinous dorsal fin is shorter 

 than the three succeeding rays, the second much the longest 

 of all. The colour of the cheeks is a mixture of silvery, 

 yellow, and light green; iris of the eye white; the back a 

 dusky red, but (chiefly near the head) mixed with definite 

 curved lines of pea green; the sides yellow; belly silvery. 

 The pectorals were pale on the outer surface, dusky within, 

 with tints of blue on the edge. Dorsal and caudal fins pale 

 red; the ventral and anal white; the caudal with tints of 

 blue. This specimen weighed five pounds. 



Fin rays first dorsal nine, second dorsal nineteen, pectoral 

 eleven, ventral fifteen, anal eighteen, caudal eighteen. 



The fish above described agrees in all its essential characters 

 with the species of Trigla noticed by Cuvier, (Poissons, vol. 

 iv, p. 67,) under the name of T. cuculus, Bloch, from whose 

 description it differs only in the want of a dark spot on the 

 first dorsal fin, a circumstance which Cuvier himself allows to 

 be liable to variation. It is remarkable, however, that in his 



