22 TRUMPET-FISH. 



that purpose, although it is admitted that what there is is of 

 excellent quality. Risso speaks of it as not common about 

 Nice; and Rafinesque, at Palermo, and Dr. Gulia, in his "Fauna 

 of Malta," make no mention of it; which omissions may in 

 part be explained by the information we obtain, that usually 

 it is only procured after stormy weather. 



The occurrence of the Trumpet-fish in Britain has only been 

 in a few instances, of which two at least were in Cornwall. 

 The first of these was thrown on shore in St. Austle Bay in 

 the year 1804, and came into the hands of William Rashleigh, 

 Esq., of the neighbouring mansion of Menabilly, who caused 

 a drawing to be taken of it of the size of nature, and from 

 which our own is a copy. It appears that Donovan had pos- 

 sessed two other British examples, from which he derived his 

 figure, as above referred to; and the fragment of another was 

 found on the beach in Mount's Bay in the year 1853, but it 

 was too imperfect for preservation. 



From the small mouth of this fish, with the absence of 

 teeth, we may conclude that its food is the entromostraca, or 

 minute animals of a variety of shapes that people the ocean 

 as insects do the land; while its little aptitude for extensive 

 motion will account for its limited wanderings, and consequently 

 for its rare appearance in unaccustomed places. 



The ordinary size of this fish is from four to five inches in 

 length; and the following notes of other particulars are derived 

 from a description made from the example taken in St. Austle 

 Bay, as before referred to, at the time of its capture. "It 

 was five inches long, and from back to the belly one inch 

 and two eighths, in thickness three eighths of an inch; it 

 v/eighed six drachms. It was red on the back, the colour 

 becoming more faint on the sides, and the belly was silvery. 

 The proboscis, which to the eye measured an inch and five 

 eighths, was formed of a bony substance, which was continued 

 along the back, where it terminated in a sharp point, spreading 

 in the middle, where it makes an obtuse angle, jiist above a 

 small fin behind the gills. The mouth, which is at the end 

 of the proboscis, is covered with a valve that is fastened to 

 the under part. The pectoral fin is small; it has tAvo small 

 dorsal fins, the former one having a very long spine, under 

 which spine (and joined to it) are small projections like the 



