OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 107 



FAMILY VIIL WEEVER-FISHES (Trackinida). 



The body more or less elongated and compressed ; certain 

 bones of the head usually armed with spines, the pre- 

 operculum without a bony stay ; the teeth minute, villiform ; 

 one or two dorsal fins, the anterior spinous portion being 

 always the shorter ; an air-bladder generally absent ; 

 branchiostegal rays varying from five to seven in number. 



The Weever-fishes, of which there are two British repre- 

 sentatives, the Greater Weever (Trachinus draco), No. 32, 

 and the Lesser Weever (Trachinus viper a), No. 33, enjoy 

 the unenviable reputation of being the only fish indigenous 

 to this country that possess undoubted poisonous properties. 

 Although not provided with true poison glands, like the exotic 

 genus Uranoscopus and its allies, it has been demonstrated 

 that the mucous membrane in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the opercular spines and the spinous dorsal fin 

 excrete an active virus that render wounds from these fish, 

 and more especially the smaller Weever, exceedingly painful 

 and even dangerous. On the Continent, where the larger 

 species is commonly exposed for sale in the markets, an 

 enactment exists requiring the prior removal of these 

 formidable spines. The most efficacious antidote for 

 wounds received from the Weever has been found, in 

 modern times, to be olive oil, to which a few drops of opium 

 have been added. In ancient days a so-called "tisane," 

 thickened with the brains of the offending fish or the body 

 of the fish itself cut open and applied to the wound, were 

 reckoned among the more effective remedies. The two 

 species of Weevers are inhabitants of the sandy shores 

 around our coasts, the larger variety, attaining a length 

 of from twelve to seventeen inches, inhabiting deeper 



