32 BLOCII S GURNARD. 



description, wliich is very minute, Cuvier omits to take any 

 notice of the supposed peculiarity already referred to, of the 

 superior length of the first ray of the dorsal fin in Bloch's 

 fio-ure, an apparent proof that he did not place confidence in 

 the truth of that remarkable particular. 



The air-bladder, the shape and size of which offer satisfactory 

 marks of distinction in the different sjDecies of Gurnards, is in 

 this fish four inches in length and six inches in circumference, 

 divided in front into two lobes, which are conical, but one of 

 them larger than the other. 



