148 SALT-WATER FISHES 



The spawning of the red gurnard has been studied in 

 this country, and its transparent, floating eggs have been arti- 

 ficially fertilised by Cunningham. The hatching took six days 

 at Plymouth, the newly hatched larval gurnard being rather 

 under -^ in. Gdnther alludes to the sensitiveness of the 

 three pectoral " fingers," and explains that the anterior spinal 

 nerves are instrumental in supplying this. 



The Grey Gurnard (T. gurnardus) is a more northern form, 

 and has consequently been studied at St. Andrews far more 

 than the last. Indeed, Holt never knew of a single red 

 gurnard being caught there during his eighteen months' 

 residence.* It is also the commonest gurnard on our east 

 coast and in the Irish Sea, where the fishermen know it as 

 the " knowds." It is easily distinguished from the last not 

 merely by its colour, grey with white spots, but also by the 

 absence of spines along the base of the dorsal fins, and, on 

 the other hand, their presence on the lateral line. It is also 

 a larger fish, growing to a length of 30 in. as against 1 8 in., 

 the greatest recorded length of the red species. It must be 

 borne in mind that the name " grey gurnard " is applied on 

 parts of the Irish coast to the Sapphirine Gurnard (iT. hirundo), 

 a very different fish. 



Its eggs float on the sea, and their hatching and the 

 development of the larva have been described in great detail 

 by Mcintosh and Masterman.f In June, according to the 

 authors, the grey gurnard's egg is the commonest pelagic egg 

 on the east coast of Scotland ; and as it is found in the shallow 

 water from April until August, and only takes a few days 

 in hatching, it may be inferred that the spawning period 

 extends over several months. The grey gurnard comes 

 in shore, then, to deposit its spawn ; in autumn it returns 

 to deeper water. It has even been said that the fish spawns 

 twice in the year, but this is generally doubted, being based 



* Vide Trans. Hoy. Dub. Soc, July, 1893, p. 35. 

 t British Marine Food-fishes, pp. 135-143. 



