Class IV. GEMMEOUS DRAGONET. 165 



name we have taken the liberty of forming, from 

 the diminutive Dracunculus, a title given it by 

 Rondeletius, and other authors. The Englijh wri- 

 ters have called it the Yellow Gurnard, which 

 having no one character of the Gurnard genus, 

 we think ourfelves obliged to drop that name. 



It is found as far north as Norway* and Spitz- Place. 

 bergen, and as far fouth as the Mediterranean fea, 

 and is not unfrequent on the Scarborough coafts, 

 where it is taken by the hook in thirty or forty fa- 

 thoms water. It is often found in the ftomach of 

 the Cod-fifh. 



This fpecies grows to the length of ten or twelve Descrif. 

 inches : the body is (lender, rounds and fmooth. 



The head is large, and flat at the top ; in the 

 hind part are two orifices, thro' which it breathes, 

 and alfo forces out the water it takes in at the 

 mouth, in the fame manner as the cetaceous fifh. 



The apertures to the gills are doled : on the 

 end of the bones that cover them is a very fingular 

 trifurcated fpine. 



The eyes are large, and placed very near each 

 other on the upper part of the head, fo that they 

 look upwards ^ for which reafonithas been ranked 



* We have received it, with other curiofities, from that 

 well-meaning prelate, Erich Pontoppidan, Bifhop of Bergen. 

 He was alfo Vice-Chancellor of the Univerfity of Copenhagen, 

 in which ftation he died, December 20th. 1764, aged 66, 

 much refpetted by his countrymen. 



M 3 among 



