THE GURNARDS, BULLHEADS, AND WEE VERS 151 



egg is described as tough and elastic, rebounding when pressed 

 with the point of a needle ; and the egg is extraordinarily hardy, 

 as proved by the fact of some having survived being frozen up 

 in ice for nearly a month, an ordeal that would have killed 

 most pelagic ova. 



The Armed Gurnard {Peristethus cataphractum) has also a 

 strong bony cuirass, but it is more gurnard-like than the last, 

 having two pectoral " fingers." There are also prominent 

 barbels on the lower jaw ; but there are no teeth, so that this 

 fish must eat only the softest food. It inhabits somewhat 

 deeper water than the true gurnards, and is only a wanderer to 

 our seas from the Mediterranean. In colour it is scarlet, 

 which gives it a further resemblance to many of the gurnards, 

 and it grows to 1 8 in. or 2 ft. in length. 



In addition to the foregoing characters, the armed gurnard 

 has two curious, slightly serrated, and flattened processes 

 growing before the eyes, and the first dorsal fin also has some 

 very long free rays. Very little has been recorded of the 

 habits of this fish, and its spawning does not appear to have 

 been studied in either this or any other country. 



Trachinidae 



The Weevers 



We now come to two very different fishes, both of them 

 venomous, and the smaller decidedly the most dangerous 

 inhabitant, for its size, of any sea. Affinities have been 

 suggested between the dangerous weevers and the innocuous 

 dragonet, a small and interesting form that is described in a 

 subsequent chapter ; and this, if correct, illustrates a case of 

 mimicry, just as we know that, for their own safety, some 

 non-venomous snakes closely imitate venomous species. The 

 weevers also recall, with some well-marked differences, the 

 bullheads, and the resemblance, apparent in the adults, is still 

 more marked in the larval and post-larval stages, in which the 



