50 Storeys Synopsis of the Fishes of North America. 



FAMILY II. TRIGLIDiE. 



Contains a numerous series offish, to which the singular appearance of their 

 head, variously bristled and covered with armor, gives a peculiar physiognomy. 

 Their general character consists in having the suborbitar bone more or less 

 extended over the cheeks, and articulated behind with the preoperculum. 



GENUS I. TRIGLA, Cuv. 



Head nearly square, covered with bony plates ; gill-cover and shoulder- 

 plate ending in a spine directed backwards ; body elongated, nearly round ; 

 two dorsal fins, the rays of the first spinous, those of the second flexible ; 

 teeth in both jaws and on the front of the vomer, pointed, small, and numer- 

 ous ; branchiostegous rays, seven ; gill-opening large ; three detached rays at 

 the base of each pectoral fin. 



1. Trigla cuculus, L. 



Of a beautiful bright red above, sides and belly silvery white. Fins reddish white. The 

 lateral line is crossed throughout its length with small, short, straight, elevated lines, which 

 have the appearance of a series of pins. Bloch compared them to the acicular leaves of the 

 pine, a resemblance which suggested to him the trivial name of pint for his species- Lin- 

 naeus called it cuculus on account of its uttering a note similar to the cuckoo when caught. 



D.9-18. P. 10. V. 1-6. A. 16. C. 11. Length, 8 inches. 



New York, Cuv. 



Trivia cuculus, Cuckoo Gurnard, L.. Shaw's Gen, Zodl., iv. .p. 620, pi. 90. 

 Polynemus tridigitatus, Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. ofN. Y., I. p. 449. 

 Trigla lirieata, Montacit, Trans. Wernerian Society, n. p. 460. 

 " Fleming, Brit. Animals, p. 215. spec. 153. 



" " Jenvns's Brit. Vert., p. 333. 



Le Grondin rouge (Trigla cuculus ? G., Trigla pini, Bloch, p. 355), Cuv. el Val., iv. p. 26. 

 Trigla cuculus, Red Gurnard, Cuckoo Gurnard, Yarhell's Brit. Fishes (2d edit.), p. 3S, plale. 



" " Red Gurnard, Dekay's Report, p. 43, pi. 70, fig. 225. 



GENUS II. PRIONOTUS, Cuv. 

 Pectorals very large, with numerous rays. A band of even teeth on the 



palatines. 



1. Prionotus lineatus, Mitchill. 



Above the lateral line of a slate-color, with a few irregularly distributed black spots; 

 sides lighter, with a reddish tint; abdomen white. Beneath the lateral line, parallel to it, a 

 broader brownish line runs the greater part of the length of the body. 



