480 FISHES. 



generally used as food ; seven species occur on the British 

 coast : the Eed Gurnard {T. pini), the Streaked Gurnard 

 (T. lineata), the Sapphirine Gurnard {T. hirundo), the Grey 

 Gurnard {T. gurnardus), Bloch's Gurnard (T. cuculus), the 

 Piper {T. lyra), and the Long-finned Gurnard (T. ohscura or T. 

 lucerna). Singularly, the European species cross the Atlantic 

 but rarely, the American species belonging chiefly to the 

 division Prionotus. 



Several other genera belong to this family ; for com- 

 pleteness' sake they are mentioned here, viz. Bunocottus from 

 Cape Horn ; Ehampliocottus, Triglops from Arctic North 

 America ; Podabrus, BUpsias, NauticMliys, Scorpwnichthys, 

 Hemilepidotus, Artedius, from the North Pacific ; Ptyonotus, 

 from Lake Ontario ; Polyccmlus from Indian Seas ; Beinbras 

 from the Japanese Sea. 



Fourteenth Family — Cataphkacti. 



Form of the hod.y elongate, sui-cylindrical. Bentition feeble. 

 Body completely cuirassed with osseous keeled sccdes or plates. 

 A bony stay connects the angle of the prceoperculum with tJie 

 infraorbital ring. Ventrcds tlwracic. 



Marine fishes, and partly pelagic. Petalopteryx, from the 

 chalk of Mount Lebanon, is supposed to have a resemblance 

 to Bactyloptenos. 



Agonus. — Head and body angular, covered with bony jjlates. 

 Two dorsal fins ; no pectoral appendages. Small teeth in the 

 jaws. 



Small fishes, from the northern parts of the temperate 

 zone and extending into the Arctic Ocean ; the genus re- 

 appears in the Southern Hemisphere on the coast of Chile. 

 Of the eleven species known, one {A. cataphractus) is not 

 uncommon on the coast of Great Britain. 



Aspidophoroides, from Greenland, has a very similar form 

 of the body, but possesses one short dorsal fin only. 



