ENGLISH FISHES. 



421 



fiot give our valuable countryman credit for it as 

 a distinct species ; and, what is more extraordinary, 

 Dr TuRTON, in his edition of Gmelin, also o- 

 mitted this fish, though he afterwards introduced 

 it into his British Fauna, and unfortunately, as the 

 leading character, says, " the snout and tail with 

 a triple row of spines." Dr Shaw, who, we may 

 presume, v/as directed to this species by the Bri- 

 tish Zoology of Mr Pennant, must have also 

 strangely construed the description of that author, 

 by saying, " rostra caudaque serie aculeorum tri- 

 plici," characters that do not belong to this fish. 

 Mr Pennant particularly says, ** On the nose are 

 two short rows of spines," and on the tail are 

 two rows, continued a little up the back." He 

 afterwards says, Along the sides of the tail, is a 

 row of minute spines, intermixed with innumer- v 

 able little spiculae." Now, it must be evident, 

 had these last rows of minor spines been meant in 

 the description of those writers, they must have 

 called it four rows, not three. This error in the 

 description of the leading characters^ demands 

 particular notice, because it deprives the species 

 of the singularity that so strongly marks its dis- 

 tinction from all others of the tribe, that of ha- 

 ving no row of spines along the ridge of the tail, 

 which it must have possessed, had it been furnish- 

 ed with three rows. Mr Pennant has well de- 

 fined this species by the tail ; for it has only two 

 rows of larger spines, and these are placed oh 



VOL, II. E e 



