THE GURNARDS, BULLHEADS, AND WEE VERS 147 



Stated to inhabit deeper water and to be a swifter-swimming 

 fish ; but the writer has caught many in the shallow waters of 

 the Baltic without observing any greater activity than in the 

 rest. With regard to its breeding, Scandinavian authors 

 regard winter as the spawning-period of the four-horned cottus, 

 and they compare its spawn to that of the perch, deposited in 

 one mass. Mcintosh is, however, sceptical, not alone as regards 

 the alleged time of breeding, but also with regard to the com- 

 paratively large size and advanced development of the larva on 

 emerging from the egg. While the eggs have not been ob- 

 tained in our seas, the larval and post-larval forms have not 

 been wanting on the east coast of Scotland. 



The Norway Bullhead (C norvegicus) is included in the 

 list of British fishes on the strength of a single example 

 trawled some years ago in Scotch waters, so that any account 

 of the fish would be obviously out of place in the present work. 



The Red Gurnard (^Trigla cuculus) is the commonest of 

 our gurnards, at any rate on the south coast, and is easily 

 distinguished by its red back and silvery belly. The scales 

 of the gurnards are small, and in the present species there is no 

 ridge of sharp spines along the lateral line, but the line itself 

 is marked by transverse plates which define it unmistakably 

 along its whole length. There are also rows of spines along 

 the base of the dorsal fins. The red gurnard has the finger- 

 like rays on the pectoral fins. It leads a lazy existence, 

 seeking its food close to the sand. Very often when a bait not 

 too large for its mouth is allowed to rest for a moment on 

 the sand off the Cornish coast in water of from 10 to 40 

 fathoms, it is instantly seized by a red gurnard, one of which 

 seems always in readiness, so that the species must be incredibly 

 abundant in that part of the Channel. Occasionally one 

 will take a spinning bait that moves slowly near the bottom, 

 and this generally happens, in fact, in pollack-fishing, when the 

 artificial bait sinks in the water and comes almost to a standstill 

 as the boat is making a tack. 



