GURNARDS. 
79 
Family IV. Trigladas. 
{Gurnards.') 
Cuvier formed these Fishes into the second 
Family of the Acanthopterygii in his system, 
giving to the group^ however, thus constituted, 
no other appellation than the descriptive one of 
Fishes with hard cheeks*” In these words 
their most obvious character is indicated, the 
head and face being encased in a solid buckler of 
bone, or in hard plates soldered together. In 
I general, the plates as well as the gill-covers, are 
more or less armed with projecting spines. The 
technical distinction between the Gurnards and 
! the Perches, to which Family they are very closely 
I allied, consists in the bone beneath the eyes (the 
sub-orbital bone)- — which is greatly dilated, so as 
to cover the cheeks, — being jointed to the gill- 
r, cover. Those curious fishes of the Perch family, 
the Stargazers {Uranoscopus)^ have the head 
mailed and angled much in the same way as the 
: Gurnards, and have their eyes directed even still 
more vertically ; but, in that genus, the sub- 
orbital bone, though very broad, is united with 
the temporal bones, and not with the gill-cover. 
The fins are well developed ; especially the 
pectorals, which often assume gay colours, and 
dimensions so great, that, like the true Flying 
! fishes of another Order (Exocoetus)^ these fishes 
are capable of projecting their bodies into the 
air, and of taking long leaps. Some genera have 
several finger-like rays, unconnected by mem- 
brane, in front of the pectorals ; which probably 
