106 ■ SCORP-ENIB.E. 



\a.Y. p). Idsirio ; minor, sanguinea, coloratior, distinctius maculata ; corpore subgraciliore ; oculis 

 fere minoribus. 

 S. Scrofa, Risso, loc. cit. p. 370. n°. 285. 

 S. Histrio, Jenyns, loc. cit. icone optima. 

 Icon, Salv. et Will. loc. cit. tt. 73 et X. 12. 

 Carneiro de Rolo, Maderensi-Lusitanice. 

 Longit. usque ad li ped. = 3| — 4 X alt. n^ 3 X longit. capitis. 

 Hab. in vadis, prope littus. 



The Carneiro of Madeira is a common market fish, which from its 

 uncouth form and brilliancy of colour fails not early to attract the ob- 

 servation of a stranger. It is, moreover, altogether unknown to the Bri- 

 tish shores ; and standing at the head of a peculiar group, rec[uiring sepa- 

 ration from the Cuvieran Gurnards or Triglidfe, of which these seas con- 

 tain some kinds known yet imperfectly even to the Ichthyologist, it will 

 not be perhaps less interesting than expedient to describe it first. 



The naturalists, however, of the Mediterranean shores have long been 

 well acquainted with this fish, which is apparently a common species also 

 in that sea. For although Aristotle says too little of his GKO^Triog* to 

 serve for its identification, this deficiency is well supplied by Athenseus : 

 who first quotes Hicesius, distinguishing two kinds of (TKO^TTiog in terms 

 well corresponding Avith the two {Sc. Scrofa, L., and Sc. porcus, L.), 

 at this day known to Ichthyologists, and both inhabiting the Mediter- 

 ranean ; one a pelagic fish and rufous {'^vf>f>og), the other blackish, dusky, 

 or dark-coloured ([MXaviZfov), and inhabiting the shallows : and then pro- 

 duces, from Numenius, a passage in which the azo^Triog is called red 

 i^z^v6^og). He further says, from Aristotle, though I cannot find the 

 passage in his extant works, that it was armed offensively with spines 

 (•^XT^zrizog) "f ; and cites Epicharmus applying to it the epithet of varied 

 {proiyJ'Kog) ; adding, himself, that it was a solitary fish and feeds on sea- 

 weed (^jOV7j^'/jg Kou (pVKO(pdyog) . Hence, when he introduces, afterwards, 

 the word ax.o^'xaiva, in conjunction with that , of dKOp'Triog, saying that 

 every one knows they differ both in taste and colour, he appears to 

 mean particularly by the former word, Hicesius's blackish kind of 



* He, however, enumerates it (B. /^S. 13) in a list of fishes having many ccBca {a'7ro(pva.'Sa.;) next 

 after the Perch, and immediately before the xiSa^os, (which I take to be some species of Tri</la, L., 

 and quite distinct from Galen's fish so called,) and the T^lyXv or Red MuUet ; from which asso- 

 ciation something of its true affinity might be inferred. He elsewhere says (E. 9-. 2) that it breeds 

 twice a year ; and again (0. n. 1) speaks of it as being both a pelagic and shore fish. His a-xo^'ri;, 

 or rather erxo^rrih;, (E. 9. 5,) is, I think, merely a f;Jse reading, though of as old a date as Atlienwus, 

 whom it puzzled, for irxo^f^/Ss; : — which word is actually extant in some IMSS., and is a much more 

 likely fish to occur in the context than even the pelagic irxo^'rios. Salviani thinks, however, that 

 this trxo^'^is was a female aKo^Ttlou 



+ So Ovid : — 



" Et capitis duro notitunis Scorpios ictii." — Halieut. 110". 



