202 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
lustre. The orange colour sometimes forms a longi- 
tudinal stripe, separated by a white streak from the 
deeper colour of the back. The ventral side white, 
sometimes with a dash of rose-colour. The dorsal, anal 
and ventral fins orange, the caudal fin blackish gray 
tinged with blood-red. The pectoral fins externally 
blackish blue, with orange or bluish white rays, according 
to Day, reddish with bine margins. On the inside of 
these fins we sometimes find at the lower margin a large, 
black spot, strewn with small spots of milky white or light 
blue. This colour on the inside of the pectoral fins is not 
fast, however, and leaves stains when touched (cf. Malm). 
The Sapphirine Gurnard is a rare fish in Scandi- 
navian waters, though its geographical range is about 
as wide as that of the preceding species, solitary speci- 
mens being met with as far north as Lofoden. As 
Steindachnee states that the Trigla capensis of Valen- 
ciennes belongs to the same species, the range of the 
Sapphirine Gurnard must extend south at least as far 
as the Cape of Good Hope. Strangely enough, according 
to Malm, it apparently occurs in the Skager Rack and 
the Cattegat more frequently in some years than in 
others. In 1860, for example, the Museum of Gothen- 
burg received eight specimens, and in 1869 four; with 
these exceptions Malm had not met with this species 
on the coast of Bohuslan for thirty years. In 1886 Mr. 
C. A. Hansson obtained a specimen, which had been 
caught in Stromstad Fjord in the month of July, and 
in 1887 another, which had been caught in the same 
place in December. Though it penetrates into the Sound 
and has been taken in Kiel Bay (Mob., Hcke), this 
happens very seldom, generally in autumn and winter. 
It may, therefore, be regarded only as an occasional 
visitor to the Cattegat, though Malm’s and Esmakk’s 
observations which we have mentioned above, show that 
it may propagate its species even in the Skager Rack. 
The Sapphirine Gurnard attains a larger size than 
the preceding species. According to Moreau its length 
may be as great as 600 mm. — a specimen taken in 
Christiania Fjord, in November, 1869, was 620 mm. 
long, according to Collett — and according to Thomp- 
son (see Day, 1. c.), it may weigh as much as 14 lbs. 
Its manner of life is probably the same in the most 
essential respects as that of the preceding species; and 
the spawning-season proper also occurs probably in the 
summer, though Couch found specimens with ripe roe 
both at Christmas and from May to July. The greater 
size of the pectoral fins in this species, however, reminds 
us of its more pronounced habit of leaping out of the 
water, which in some places, according to Nilsson, has 
given it the name of “Flying-fish,” and which, says 
Lacepede“, is connected, to a certain extent, with the 
name of lucerna (“ lantern e ou fanaV). “It is chiefly the 
parts of the head,” he says, “especially the gape and, 
above all, the palate, which shine at night with a pleas- 
ing and steady light, like that which radiates from so 
many phosphorescent objects, living or dead, during 
the lovely summer-nights of the South. After sunset, 
on a calm evening, one may see hundreds of Gurnards, 
exposed to the same danger and impelled by a common 
panic, leap out of their element to avoid a dangerous 
foe, and spring into the lower aerial regions, where 
they support themselves for some moments by flapping 
their membranous wings, which are short, but wielded 
by strong muscles. It is a strange sight — these soft 
lights which suddenly rise above the waves, advance 
and again fall into the depths, after tracing in the air 
interlacing lines of fire, now distinct and now united. 
Helped by the phosphorescent gleam of the water at 
the surface, they thus form in the air an illumination 
which moves on and varies without a pause.” 
Fam. AGONIDiE. 
Body cottiform but elongated , and cuirassed with contiguous , bony plates, arranged in from 8 to 10 longitudinal 
rows. Spinous-rayed part, of the dorsal fins {which is sometimes wanting) usually shorter ( but sometimes longer) 
than the soft-rayed. Anal fin without spinous rays. Ventral fins with 1 spinous and 2 or 3 soft rays. Bays 
of the pectoral fins , like those of the other fins, usually simple. Pseudobranchice present. No air-bladder. Ver- 
tebra ’ more than 30. 
As we have mentioned above, the forms within this to the preceding ones that some writers regard both 
family, the Cuirassed, Gurnards , are so closely related the Flying Gurnards and the Malarmats as Cuirassed 
“ Hist . Nat . Poiss ., tom. Ill, p. 363. 
