2754 THE BONY FISHES AND GANOIDS 



forms are rarely found on this side of the Atlantic, where their place is taken by 

 representatives of the third subgenus. 



Two British species are figured in the colored plate, namely, the gray gurnard 

 ( T. gumardus} above, and the streaked gurnard ( T. lineata] below. 



THE FLYING GURNARDS AND THEIR ALLIES Family DACTTLOPTERID^E 



Another family of the present section is typified by the so-called flying gur- 

 nards, and is easily recognized by the investiture of the body in an armor of bony- 

 keeled plates or scales. In form the body is elongate and subcyclindrical; the teeth 

 are weak; and there is a bony stay connecting the preopercular with the infraorbital 

 ring. These fishes are all marine, some being pelagic, and they are found in all 



BEAKED GURNARD. 



(One-third natural size.) 



seas, from the Arctic Ocean to the Equator, as well as in the Southern Hemisphere. 

 They are represented by an extinct genus {Petalapteryx'} in the Italian middle 

 Eocene. 



The curious-looking fish (Agonus cataphradus) , figured in the 

 preceding illustration, is the British representative of a genus of 

 small-sized fishes inhabiting the northern temperate seas and extending into the 

 Arctic Ocean. They are characterized by the angulation of the head and body, 

 which are invested in body plates; the small size of the teeth in the jaws; the two 

 dorsal fins; and the absence of appendages to the pectorals. Of the armed bull- 

 head, as the British species is popularly termed, Yarrell writes that it is not "un- 



