ARMED GURNARD. 39 



Mr. Richard Quiller Couch, of Penzance, from which our figure 

 has been taken. 



It is described by Risso as a solitary species, that is very 

 active in its movements, and often rises high in the water, 

 which it is able to accomplish the better through the help of 

 an air-bladder of more than ordinary size. But when at the 

 bottom, its restless motion, by driving it against rocks and 

 stones, causes the breaking off of one or both of the projecting 

 processes of the snout. Its food is molluscous animals, worms, 

 and sea-weeds. 



The length of this fish is about a foot, but in the Medi- 

 terranean it is said to grow to double that size. Dr. Moore's 

 example measured eleven inches, of which the bifid snout 

 projected to the extent of an inch, but in my own specimen 

 the length of the snout was greater than this. The eye is 

 oval, high on the side of the head, with the slope thence to 

 the root of the bifurcation of the snout gradual, and made 

 rough by several pointed tubercles. The eyes stand apart, 

 with a formidable border of spines above them; a serrated 

 spine behind each eye, and a broader one, irregularly triangular, 

 on the gill-covers; a third below, with a ridge, which ajjpears 

 like a lateral continuance of each branch of the snout. These 

 sj^ines and the' cheek-plates rough with granular elevations. 

 The line of the mouth circular; jaws without teeth; several 

 filaments hang from the chin. The body is shaped into an 

 octangular form by a series of plates having a sharply-raised 

 edge in the middle, by which means the octangular lines 

 become toothed like a saw. The uppermost row of these lines 

 forms on each side a border to the roots of the dorsal fins, 

 and begins close to the head; and three of these ridges throw 

 out a slender bony process as a guard to the root of the tail. 

 In Dr. Moore's figure the dorsal fins are united, and the first 

 ray is the longest; the fin gradually sloping backward to near 

 the tail, which latter organ is concave, as in that of Mr. 

 Yarrell, with (in Dr. Moore's fish) the rays projecting beyond 

 the membrane. 



This last-named circumstance, however, is to be ascribed to 

 the rough usage sustained by all fishes caught in a trawl, as 

 was probably the case also with Mr. Yarrell's example, in 

 which the first dorsal fin is represented low, with the rays 



