SCORPsENAS— GURNARDS 



35i 



Scorpasnas. 



ones, a native swims to its assistance with a second and stronger line, which is 

 made fast to one of the flippers. 



The ugly fishes known as Scorpcena, together with their immedi- 

 ate relatives, constitute the first family (Scorpceniclce) of another 

 section of the spiny-finned fishes. As characteristic features of the scorpsena and 

 its allies mention may be made of the oblong and more or less compressed form of 

 the body, and the presence of spines on the head, especially on one of the bones of 

 the gill-cover, which is united by means of a projecting bar with the circle of bones 

 round the eye. Some of these fishes are not unlike sea-perches, but others live on 

 the sea-bottom, and are furnished with peculiar outgrowths of skin resembling sea- 

 weeds, and serving either for concealment or as lures to other fishes. In colour 

 scorpsenas generally assimilate more or less closely to their surroundings, their 

 tints varying according to locality. Of the two Atlantic representatives of the 



Gurnards. 



typical genus, S. porous is brownish red in colour, with darker spots and mottlings, 

 and is inferior in size to S. scrofa, which grows to about thirty inches. The 

 members of the genus Sebastes represent the perch-like type, while Tetraroge, 

 Pelor, and Synancia form the abnormal types referred to above. Scorpaenas 

 are common in the Australasian seas, as well as in other parts of the South 

 Pacific. 



The well-known gurnards and their relatives the flying-gurnards 

 respectively constitute two families, Triglidce and Dactylopteridce, 

 belonging to the scorpsena section. Gurnards are remarkable for their brilliant red 

 and blue colouring, and the finger-like prolongations of the pectoral fins, whicli are 

 employed to search the sea-bottom for the shrimps and crabs on which these fishes 

 feed. They are likewise noteworthy on account of the grunting sounds they 

 produce by means of their air-bladders. The red gurnard (Trigla cuculus) and 

 the sapphire gurnard (T. hirundo) are well-known British species ; but all the four 

 kinds of flying-gurnards of the genus Dactylopterns are inhabitants of the warmer 



