THE BULLHEADS AND GURNAEDS. 349 



such excellent sport in Australian waters. Our species is 

 especially common in the fall of the year in the mouth of 

 the Thames. In colour it is usually brown with black and 

 white streaks, occasionally deep red. Cunningham ^ attrib- 

 utes the colour of the carmine examples to the influence 

 of the red seaweed in the midst of which they lurk. 



I .have also taken in the Baltic the greyer Four-horned 



Cottus with the red and yellow markings. It resembles 



t Four- *^® ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ sluggish movements, occasional 



horned activity in rushing at a spoon-bait, and capac- 

 ° ^^* ity for surviving several hours out of water. 

 Its name alludes to the four rough tubercles upon the 

 head. 



[The Norway Bullhead^ a straggler only to our waters, 

 has been added to the British list comparatively recently, 

 a single specimen having been taken off" the Mull of 

 Kintyre.] 



2. The Gurnards. 



The gurnards differ from the foregoing outwardly in the 

 development of a bony armour on the head, inwardly in 

 the presence of an air-bladder. The square head with its 

 fleshy feelers imparts anything but a pleasing appearance ; 

 nor is the impression made more favourable by the curious 

 grunts which fresh-caught gurnards are capable of emitting 

 from the air-bladder, a peculiarity to which they owe their 

 trivial name in many tongues (cf. Gournecm^ Croonan, 

 Knurrhahn, &c.) Like the bullheads, they are creatures 

 of sluggish habits, feeding for the most part on or near 

 the bottom, over which they crawl with the aid of their 

 sensitive feelers, but occasionally in warm weather gambol- 

 ling at the surface. They greedily take any bait that 

 lingers within reach; and I have even caught a fair 

 number on spinning baits when pollack -fishing, usually 

 when, for some reason or other, the bait has been allowed 

 1 Marketable Marine Fishes, p. 326. 



