PISCES. 431 



Bloeli's Griirnard. (T. Bloehii). Distinguished from EUeck by 

 its blunt profile and dark colour. By no means uncommon. 



Lantborn Gurnard. fT. LucernaJ. The Long-finned Captain. 

 Recorded as having occurred once at Plymouth. Yery rare. 



Little Grurnard. {^T. Pmcih'ptera). A very small fish. Yery 

 rare. Has been taken at Falmouth and in the Bristol 

 Channel. 



Armed Grurnard. [Peristedron malarmat). Mailed Grurnard. 

 Yery rare. 



Pogge. {Aspidophorus cataphr actus.) Armed Bullhead. Sea 

 Poacher. Black sting fish. Mentioned by Couch as not 

 uncommon. I have never seen a specimen. 



Miller's Thumb. {Cottus Golio). Eiver Bullhead. A fresh- 

 water fish. Common. 



Fatherlasher. f Cottus ScorpiusJ. Sea Scorpion. Sting fish 

 (but it does not sting. It is so called from the complete 

 spine armament of its head.) Found inshore. Common, 



Lucky Proach. (^Cottus Bulalis). Also called Fatherlasher. 

 Common in deep water with rocky bottom. 



Three-spined Stickleback. ( Gasterosteus Spinulosus). Banstickle. 

 Pricklefish. Mr. Couch says of it "It is not uncommon, 

 though not in abundance. It ascends our rivers in May." 

 My experience of it is that it , is a very common fish, and a 

 permanent resident in our small brooks, where it is frequently 

 mistaken for (and called) the minnow. 

 Fifteen-spined Stickleback. {G. SpinacMa). Sea Adder. Often 

 confounded with the Pipe fishes. Common. 

 The half-armed Stickleback and the Smoothtailed Stickleback 

 are abandoned by Couch in his " British Fishes." 



Couch here introduces the Maigre fSciosna Aquila), which is 

 not a stickleback, but the typical fish of the Scisenidse, an allied 

 family. It is a Mediterranean fish, and has occurred in Corn- 

 wall on several occasions in sizes varying from one foot to over 

 five feet in length. The largest sj^ecimen recorded was literally 

 di owned ofi^ the Land's End. A large stem of oreweed had got 

 entangled in its gills, and the fish being thus prevented from 

 breathing, died from suffocation. 



