222 GEMMEOUS DRAGONET. Class IV". 



antients, but the notices they have left of it are 

 so very slight, as to render it difficult to deter- 

 mine what species they intended. * Pliny makes 

 it a synonym to the tlranoscopus, a fish frequent 

 in the Italian seas, but very different from our 

 Dragonet, a name we have taken the liberty of 

 forming;, from the diminutive Dracunculus, a 

 title given it by Rondeletius, and other authors. 

 The English writers have called it the Yellow 

 Gurnard, but having no one character of the 

 Gurnard genus, we think ourselves obliged to 

 drop that name. 



It is found as far north as Norzvay\ and 

 Spitzbergen, and as far south as the Mediterra- 

 nean sea, and is not unfrequent on the Scarbo- 

 rough coasts, where it is taken by the hook in 

 thirty or forty fathoms water. It is often found 

 in the stomach of the Cod-fish. 

 Descrip- This species grows to the length of ten or 

 twelve inches ; the body is slender, round, and 

 smooth ; the head is large, and flat at the top ; 

 in the hind part are two orifices, through which 



* Lib. xxxii. c. 1 1 . 



f We have received it, with other curiosities, from that well- 

 meaning prelate, Erich Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen. He 

 was also Vice-Chancellor of the University of Copenhagen, in 

 which station he died, December 20th, 1764, aged 6G, much 

 respected by his countrymen. 



tion-. 



