URANOSCOPUS. 285 



loose and shrivelled. At the corners of the mouth 

 are threads, and small cirri or tendrils hanging 

 from the tip of the under lip. It is destitute of a 

 swimming bladder, and therefore must be confined 

 to the mud, where we imagine it passes the time 

 in snatching, the smaller fishes that happen to come 

 within reach of its dilatable mouth. We have 

 only one specimen, taken in deep water, in fishing 

 for cod. 



Web-Fingered Gurnard, — Trigla Palmi- 

 pes. Dr Mitchell found also the sea-robin, (Jine- 

 ata,) at New York, but we have never detected 

 it in Massachusetts. There are fleshy filaments 

 attached to the skin, just under the lower fissure 

 of the gills, before the pectoral fins, which have 

 given it the name. At their extremities they are 

 like the fine threads of a tassel. Over the head 

 there is a coat of mail, quite rough. On the mid- 

 dle plate of the operculum, there is a sharp bony 

 spear, directed backward, and the posterior is 

 notched like two saw teeth. On the walls of the 

 chest are two broad shields of bone, also armed 

 with thorns ; and from the eyes are two others, end- 

 ing near the dorsal fin. A mottled olive is the pre- 

 vailing color, but the abdomen is delicately white ; 

 and interspersed here and there are spots of red. 

 The pectoral fins almost equal those of the flying 



