THE RED GURNARD. 35 



taken from the sea. Excellent amusement is occasion- 

 ally to be obtained by fishing for them with hand lines, 

 the hooks baited with a shining silvery piece of a sand- 

 launce. 



The Red Gurnard is very common on the English coast, 

 and in Ireland is taken from Waterford on the south, up the 

 eastern shore to Londonderry in the north, but seldom found 

 larger than twelve or fourteen inches in length : it feeds on 

 crustaceous animals, spawns in May or June, and I have 

 found the characters well marked in young Gurnards only 

 an inch and a half long, taken in the small pools among 

 the rocks under Portland Island, by the end of August. 

 Their flesh is good food, and they are in greatest perfection 

 about October, and through the winter months. The num- 

 ber of fin-rays are as follows : 



D. 918 : P. 10 3 : V. 1+6 : A. 16 : C. 11. 



Few fishes have the head so well defended as the Gur- 

 nard : its form is nearly square ; the nose, in the Red Gur- 

 nard, with four projecting, but short tooth-like processes on 

 each side ; the mouth small, a band of small teeth on both 

 jaws, and a small row on the vomer ; the cheeks hard, gill- 

 openings large ; operculum with one small spine directed 

 backwards, and one much larger on the scapular region above 

 the pectoral fin ; three free rays at the base of this fin, which 

 are abundantly supplied with nerves, and assist the fish as an 

 organ of touch to find its food at the bottom ; the eyes large, 

 the edge of the orbits with two or three small spines directed 

 upwards ; both dorsal fins placed in a groove between two 

 rows of short triangular spines directed backwards ; the body 

 is covered with small oval ciliated scales ; the lateral line is 

 not armed, runs parallel to the line of the back of the fish, 

 and is crossed throughout its length with small short straight 

 elevated lines, which have the appearance of a series of pins, 



D 2 



