86 
ACANTHOPTERYGII. — TIIIGLAD.E. 
The principal mode of taking Gurnards is by 
means of the trawl-net, a long conical net already 
described, dragged along the bottom after a boat 
under sail. But the Grey Gurnard is taken on 
the coast of Ireland, by the fleet-line, like the 
Mackerel. A writer in the New Sporting 
Magazine,” who well describes him as all points 
and angles,” his huge horny bony head, armed 
at all points with barbs and thorns,” his tremen- 
dous dorsal fin, a natural chevaux de frise, for the 
hand of the incautious fisherman and, as to his 
habits, as living perpetually on the surface, and 
being prodigiously gregarious and voracious be- 
yond all example,” says, I have sailed through 
them in shoals to which the eye could see no 
limit, rolling lazily on the water, with the points 
of the fin projecting over the surface, and swallow- 
ing everything which came within view. In the 
summer months their sole food is the herring-fry ; 
and I have often found them gorged with the 
miserable little fish to an extent which their size 
would seem to render absolutely impossible.*” 
' In unhooking the Mackerel there is no diffi- 
culty. It is not so, however, with his friend and 
companion the Gurnard. He is a far more 
dangerous customer, even, than the Perch, the 
terror of the inexperienced river angler. The 
moment your hand touches him, — whisk ! up fiy 
the back fin, the thorns of the head, and the whole 
array of points and barbs with which he so 
liberally provides you ; and it may be that your 
lacerated fingers will remind you for several days 
of the necessity for caution in every future at- 
tempt. The ordinary method of avoiding this 
inconvenience, — more serious than might perhaps 
