30 
bloch’s gurnard. 
of the first dorsal ray, if such had been the fact; and when 
he adds the remark that many examples are taken in summer 
on the coast of Devon in shore nets, we may safely venture 
to conclude that he neither refers to the Eed Gurnard of Bloch’s 
figure, nor to the scarce species we shall presently describe. 
A similar observation will apply to Mr. Jenyns, and Mr. 
hompson, of Belfast. The last-named writer particularly 
points out^ the discrepancies which occur in some writers as 
regards this fish, and especially that one which concerns the 
relative height of the spinous rays; which latter particular is 
not referred to by Mr. Jenyns, although he mentions as an 
important character the presence or absence of rough granu- 
lations along the anterior border of the first two rays; a 
circumstance which, as I have already noticed, is exceedingly 
liable to vary in the species to which I suppose him to refer, 
that is, our common Elleck, where it is sometimes conspicuous' 
and at others entirely wanting". 
Without seeking to dispel the cloud of obscurity which 
thus rests upon the fish of Bloch, I will proceed to describe 
a species which, if not the same, is nearly allied to it, and 
beyond question different from all that have already passed 
under our notice. A particular account of it (with a fio-ure) 
was first published in the “Zoologist” for the year 1846, "from 
which again the following particulars are for the most part 
derived. It is to be added that I have seen two or three 
examples, at a considerable distance of time from each other 
and that another is reported to me as having been taken in 
the Mount’s Bay. 
The length of the example described was twenty-six inches, 
and round the body, where thickest, the girth fifteen inches 
and a half; the shape much like that of the Tubfish, f T. 
hirundo,) but from the eyes to the snout more lengthened and 
pointed, consequently less abrupt; the head more roughly 
marked with similar stellated lines, and more effectually 
armed. The snout was deeply bifurcated, and each section 
was formed of three roundish distinct teeth, in this respect 
more closely resembling the Piper than the other British 
species of Gurnard. From the snout to the centre of the 
eye it measured four inches; summit of the head wide and 
flat, in which it resembles the Tubfish in a particular in which 
