582 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
which the head is mailed and cnirassed ; the operculum and shoulder- 
hones are armed with spines, haring trenchant blades, which gire 
them a disagree-able, even a hideous, physiognomy, and has procured 
them various names, such as sea-frog, sea-scorpion, sea-devil, and 
sundry other equally significant names. With this forbidding appear- 
ance, however, the gurnards are among the most resplendent inhabit- 
ants of the sea. Nothing can exceed the beauty of their markings ; 
but the brilliancy with which Nature has gifted them is their misfor- 
Fig. 388. The Red Gurnard (Trigla pini). 
tune ; it betrays them to their enemies, which are found in the air as 
well as in the water, and without their prodigious fecundity this species 
would long since have disappeared. 
Twelve species of Trigla are known. In the British seas the com- 
monest species is the Grey Guimard ( Trigla gurnardus), a silvery- 
grey fish, more or less clouded with brown and speckled with black. A 
rare species with us, but very common in the Mediterranean, is the Bed 
Gurnard, Trigla pini (Fig. 388). It is of a fine bright rose-red colour, 
