612 



FLYING GURNARD* 



Trigla Volitans. T. rubra, aculeato- squamosa, pinnis pectoralibu3 

 maximis cceruleo-maculatis, digitis senis membrana connexis. 



Red Gurnard,, with aculeated scales, very large pectoral fins 

 spotted with blue, and sextuple fingers connected by a 

 membrane. 



Trigla volitans. Lin, Milvus. Salvian* Aldr* Will. §c. 



A highly singular and beautiful species : length 

 about twelve inches : colour crimson above, pale or 

 whitish beneath : head blunt, and armed on each 

 side with two very strong and large spines pointing 

 backwards : whole body covered with extremely 

 strong carinated and sharp-pointed scales, so united 

 as not to be distinctly separable : first dorsal fin 

 pale violet, crossed with deeper lines, and at its 

 origin two separate rays longer than the rest : 

 second dorsal fin pale, with the rays barred with 

 brown : pectoral fins extremely large, transparent, 

 of an olive-green, richly varied with numerous 

 bright-blue spots : pectoral processes six* in num- 

 ber, and not separate, as in other species, but 

 united into the appearance of a small fin on each 

 side the thorax : tail pale violet, with the rays 

 crossed by dusky spots, and strengthened on each 

 side the base by two obliquely transverse bony ribs 

 or bars. Native of the Mediterranean, Atlantic, 

 and Indian seas, where it swims in shoals, and is 

 often seen flying out of the water to a considerable 

 distance, in the manner of the genus Exocoetus. 



* By a singular oversight in the Systema Naturae the thoracic 

 processes or fingers in this species are said to be twenty in number 

 " digitis vicenis" 



