CHAPTEE X. 



THE GURNARD GROUP. 



Eesplendissantes dans leurs tegumens, brillantes dans leur 

 parure, rapides dans leur natation, agiles dans leur toI, vivant 

 ensemble sans se combattre, pouvant s'aider sans se nuire, on 

 croirait devoir las comprendre parmi les Stres sur lesquels la na- 

 ture a r^pandu le plus des faveurs. — LaeSpede. 



rriHE small group of mullets (presenting, with some 

 -*- striking peculiarities of their own, many points of 

 resemblance with the perches) are placed, as we have seen, 

 at the end of the great division of acanthopterygii, or fish 

 with spinous back fins. The succeeding group, charac- 

 terized by sharp projecting cheeks, and cuboid heads 

 cased in cuirasses of bony plates, includes the gurnard 

 (trigla*) ; the flying fish (dactylopterus) ; the sea-scorpion 

 (scorpsena) ; cottus, represented on our shores by the 

 father-lasher and the miller's thumb,t and those most 



* This, which, is the old original Grreek name for mullet, was 

 later made by Artedi to include the gurnards as well : on a subse- 

 quent revision the two have been again dissociated, the mullets 

 robbed of their rights, and the gurnards put into possession of a 

 name which does not properly belong to them. 



t The C. gobio, or miller's thimib, tete d'ane of some of the 

 provinces of France; the kottos of Aristotle, of which he gives, in 

 the 8th chapter of his 4th book on Animals, the following excel- 

 lent notice : "Kn Siv toU TtOTafiois iurXv IxSibia mo rais nerpais, 

 a KoKovcri rives kSttovs- koX ravra 67]pevov<n, Kcmrovres ras irirpas 

 XiBois- TO. 8e iKiriiTTci iTapa(l>ep6iieva, as aKovovra Koi KaprjfiapovvTa 

 vnh roO ■^6(j>ov. The flesh of this species becomes salmon-coloured 

 by boiling, and is held a delicacy ; iiiose of the lake Neufchatel 

 (where as a schoolboy we made an early acquaintance with them) 



H 3 



