348 Mr. Thompson on Fishes new to Ireland. 



XXXVIII. — On Fishes new to Ireland. By William 

 Thompson, Esq., Vice-President of the Natural History- 

 Society of Belfast. 

 In the course of a communication which I had the honour of 

 bringing before the Zoological Society of London, on the 13th 

 of June, 1837* were a number of fishes new to Ireland, but 

 which, being known as British species, were introduced in 

 little more than a catalogue form, and so published in the 

 Proceedings of the Society. As the species are chiefly rare, 

 the following notes respecting them are brought together, in 

 the hope that they may prove acceptable for this publica- 

 tion. 



Trigla Cuculus, Bloch*. T. Blochii, Yarr., Red Gur- 

 nard. — Of this gurnard, two small specimens, taken at 

 Youghal, county Cork, early in the summer of 1835, have, 

 along with many other fishes from the same locality, been 

 kindly submitted to my examination by Robert Ball, Esq., of 

 Dublin. 



They are respectively 3 and 3| inches in length. The num- 

 ber of rays in their fins are 



D. 8—19 5 P. 10, and 3 ; V. 1(5 ; A. 18 (and 19) ; 

 C. 10 (and 11). 

 A black spot is conspicuous from 3rd to 5th ray of 1st D. 

 fin. P. fins extending so far as to be on a line with the ori- 

 gin of A. finf. Dorsal spines, 27. Lateral line strongly ser- 

 rated. " Whole body rough" (as described by Montagu, Wern. 

 Mem., v. ii. p. 459) in consequence of spinous scales. Other 

 characters as given by Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist, des Pois. 

 t. iv. p. 68, 69: in this work the relative length of the 1st 

 and 2nd rays of the 1st D. fin is not mentioned {, nor is it in 



* The T. Cuculus, Bl., appears inadvertently in Mr. Templeton's cata- 

 logue of ' Irish Vertebrate Animals' (Mag. Nat. Hist., N.S., vol. i. p. 409), 

 the species meant being the T. pint, Bl. 



f These are generally described as not reaching so far as the vent, but 

 their superior length in the present instance is probably consequent on the 

 specimens being so young, as in several other genera of fishes I have re- 

 marked the P. fins in very young individuals to be much longer proportion- 

 ally than they are in adult specimens. 



% Notwithstanding the trouble taken by Cuv. and Val. in clearing up the 

 synonyma of the Trigla, and which has been so ably done, there is still a 

 little confusion in one point respecting this species. At p. 70 it is remarked 

 that Risso has well described it ; yet, on a comparison instituted between the 



