FISHES. 



627 



sought after, both for its beauty of colour and excellent table 

 qualities. It is found in many seas, but particularly in the 

 Mediterranean, where it is taken all round the coast, usually in 

 muddy bottoms ; it is fished for both by line and net. 



The family of the Gurnards (Tri^Hdce) is remarkable for the 



Fig. 396.— The Red Gurnard (Trigla pinii). 



singular manner in which the head is mailed and cuirassed ; the 

 operculum and shoulder-bones are armed widi spines, having 

 trenchant blades, which give them a disagreeable, even a hideous, 

 physiognomy, and has procured them various names, such as sea- 

 frog, sea-scorpion, seadevil, and sundry other equally significant 

 names. Even with this forbidding appearance, however, the gurnards 

 are among the most resplendent inhabitants of the sea. Nothing 

 can exceed the beauty of their markings ; but the brilliancy with 



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