468 THE MACKEREL. 
species, which are spread over all the northern and temperate parts of the 
world. In Russia the Bull-head is believed by the general public to possess 
the same quality as is attributed to the kingfisher by our own rustic popula- 
tion, and to indicate the direction of the wind by always keeping its head 
turned to windward when it is dried and suspended horizontally by a thread. 
The mouth of this little fish is very wide, and contains numerous minute 
teeth. There is one spine on the preoperculum, and the operculum ends in 
a flattened point. The general colour ot the smooth skin is very dark brown 
on the back, white on the abdomen, and greyish white on the flanks, The 
rays of the fins are spotted with durk blackish brown and white, rather 
variable in different individuals, and the fins are marked with dark brown dots. 
The eyes are yellow, and the pupil very dark blue. It is but a small fish, 
averaging four, and seldom exceeding five, inches in length. 
WE now come to the typical genus of this family, which is represented by 
several well-known British species. 
THE RED GURNARD, or CUCKOO GURNARD, as it is sometimes called, 
: from the sound it utteis 
when taken out of the water, 
is very common on tle 
English coast. It is rather 
a small fish, rarely exceeding 
fourteen inches in length. 
The colours of its body 
when living are very beauti- 
ful, the upper part being 
bright red, and the under 
parts silvery white. 
There are nine species of 
Gurnard known to frequent 
the coasts of England, some, 
as the SAPPHIRINE and the 
MA1LED GURNARDS, being 
most extraordinary in form. 
THE FLYINGGURNARDIs 
GURNARD.—( Zrigla cuculus.) common in the Indian seas. 
Its pectoral fins are so much 
enlarged, that when it springs out of the water, when pursued by the dolphin 
or bonito, the wide quivering fins are able to sustain it in the air for a. 
limited period. 
This fish has often been confounded by voyagers with the true fiving fish 
(Exocetus), which belongs to an entirely different order. 
THE important, though not very large family of the Scomberidz, contains 
many species that are almost invaluable as food, and others that are beautiful 
in form and interesting in habits. 
Our first example of these fishes is the MACKEREL, so well known for the 
exceeding beauty of its colours and the peculiar flavour of its flesh. This is 
one of the species that are forced by the irresistible impulse of instinct to 
migrate in vast shoals at certain times of the year, directing their course 
towards the shores, and as a general rule frequenting the same or neighbouring 
localities from year to year. 
. This fish is taken both by nets and lines, the nets being of two kinds, one 
called the drift-net, and the other the seine. The drift-net is, as its name 
implies, allowed to be drifted out by the tide, and is suspended along a cord 
called the drift-rope. The whole length of one of these nets when shot is 
sometimes a mile and a half, these enormous dimensions being attained 
