BULL-HEADS AND GURNARDS 
229 
r 
means of their 
arm-like fins. Only 
one species occurs 
in British waters. 
Its method o£ 
spawning is remark- 
able, in that the 
eggs are laid in the 
form of large raft- 
like sheets, which 
float on the surface 
of the sea. The 
number of eggs laid 
by a single fish has 
been computed to 
be 1,345,000. A 
single sheet of 
spawn may measure 
from 2 to 3 feet 
in breadth and from 
25 to 30 feet long. 
The B u L L - 
HEADS and Gur- 
nards, constituting 
the next family, are 
characterized by the spiny armature of the head and the 
Photo by Saville-Kent, ] [Milford-o-n-Sea 
BUTTER FLY- GURNARD 
'The head of all gurnards is encased in an armour of bony plates 
Photo by Reinhold Thiele & Co.] 
RED - 
The curious finger-like processes are 
great size of the breast-fins. The 
former are represented in British 
waters by four species, one of 
which, the Miller^’s-thujib, 
inhabits fresh-water. The 
marine species include the Sea- 
scorpion and Father-lasher. 
The Bull-pieads on the 
Indian and Australian coasts are 
represented by the closely allied 
Flat-heads, or Crocodile- 
fishes, in which the head, as its 
name implies, is much depressed, 
and fully armed with spines, 
which are highly poisonous, and 
cause a violent irritation. These 
fishes live in shallow water, 
lying on the bottom, with which 
their colours harmonize so com- 
pletely that they are practically 
invisible. The very large ventral 
fins — those seen in the photo- 
graph immediately behind the 
breast-fins — are of great use in 
[Chancery Lane, W. C. loCOmOtion. 
GURNARD The Gurnards are well- 
tised as organs of touch as ‘zvell as locomotion known fisheS, COmmon on the 
