24 SEA-FISH. 
in our seas, and why it should never find its way to 
the restaurant is a marvel. 
The gurnard is cited by many as another instance 
of an unprepossessing fish with much to 
recommend it for the table; but I must 
confess to a decided dislike of its flesh, which 
I have always found so woolly as to defy even 
the most cunning stuffing. The gurnards, which 
in our seas amount to half a dozen species, are 
characterised by brilliant colouring for the most 
part, and have appendages resembling barbules, or 
feelers, in reality the free rays of the pectoral fins, 
on which they crawl, as it were, over the rocks. 
They are slow swimmers, generally taking a sta- 
tionary bait, but occasionally seizing a spinner that 
moves sufficiently slowly and at considerable depth. 
Gurnards 
[The Haddock is not a very usual catch with the 
amateur; but I have taken a few in the Baltic, 
where, perhaps owing to the low percentage of 
salt, they run small, like the herrings. It is 
closely allied to the cod, from which it may be 
distinguished by the black marks on either side 
beneath the first dorsal fin, popularly regarded as 
the finger-mark of the apostle who took the tribute- 
money. | 
[The Hake, another ally of the cod, is also a fish 
rarely taken by theamateur, though he may probably 
have an opportunity of seeing more than one should 
he spend a night aboard a pilchard-driver, as these 
powerful and voracious fish pursue the pilchards 
right into the net, where they occasion much 
damage. | 
