LANTIIORN GURNARD. 



85 



gradually to the snout, wliicli is armed with two protruded 

 spines. The usual spines on the gill-covers are but little 

 developed. The line of spines along each side of the roots 

 of the dorsal fins is not well marked; but on each side of 

 the body from the upper part of the gill-covers to the tail 

 runs a broad line, formed of plates, the longest diameter 

 of which is perpendicular to the length of the fish. Authors 

 have described the lateral line as double, and Linnaeus notices 

 this circumstance in the specific character of this fish; but 

 nothing like this aj^pears on examination, and Dr. Parnell, who 

 describes the fish minutely, says nothing of it. In my specimen 

 the ventral fins are a little longer than the pectoral; but a 

 remarkable character is the great extension of the second ray 

 of the first dorsal fin, which is nearly twice as long as the 

 first ray. The colour of this fish is red, paler below, but in 

 our examj^le the colour has faded. 



We copy Dr. Parnell's enumeration of the fin rays: — First 

 dorsal nine, second dorsal seventeen, pectoral twelve, and 

 eighteen, ventral six, caudal nine. 



