THE FILAMENTOUS GURNARD. 



251 



partially carried out, with a body covered with tubercles, deceased from confluent small- 

 pox, and its surface in an advanced stage of decomposition. The head of this creature 

 is enormous in proportion to the size of its body, and the- skin, which hangs loosely 

 about it, is soft, spongy, wrinkled, warty, and when touched adheres to the fingers as 

 if covered with glue. In most places where it is known, it is held in much dread, and 

 is thought to be capable of inflicting poisoned wounds by means of the sharp and slender 

 spines with which it is armed. Its color is blackish, mottled at random with white, 

 gray, and brown. Sometimes it is almost wholly black. 



I HAVE already mentioned that the present family is rich in strange and eccentric 

 forms, the head being apparently crushed out of all shape, hung about with scraps of 

 depending skin, and armed with sharp projecting spines ; the body oddly colored, 

 and the fins developed into the most extraordinary shapes, as if intended to show the 

 infinite variety of Nature, and the contracted powers of human conjecture. There 

 seems to be no reason whatever for the singular development of the fins in several 

 of these species, for the odd shape of the head, or for the flaps of loose skin that 

 depend therefrom like casual tatters on a mendicant's professional costume. 



FILAMENTOUS GURNARD. -Pelor fllameatosum. 



The FILAMENTOUS GURNARD affords another example of this apparent capricious- 

 ness of grotesque formation, the shape of this very remarkable fish being better under- 

 stood by a figure than by verbal description alone. It is found on the coasts of the 

 Isle of France. It appears to feed mostly upon crustaceans and molluscs, and the 

 bony remnants of certain cuttle-fish have been found in its stomach. Its color is gray- 

 ish brown, marbled with a deeper hue of the same tint, and covered with minute spots 

 of white. 



There is another species of this genus which is colored in a rather bold and pleasing 

 manner. This is the SPOTTED PELOR (Pelor maculatuni), which derives its name 

 from the manner in which the black hue of the skin is variegated with white. In this 

 species there are three large white patches on the back, and three more on the dorsal 

 fin. Some circular white spots are scattered on the head, and a white ring encircles 

 the eyes. The pectoral fins are decorated with a bold white band, and the tail fin is 

 marked with two white bands alternating with the same number of black stripes. 



