Volume 1

The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton].

  • Hamilton, Robert, M.D.
Date:
[1876]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and lienee, as in tlic higher orders of animals, a greater jiroportion of its generic fonns is common to the Xew and Old World. Several genera are common to both sides of the Atlantic, and some of the Fresh-water Cotti and Gasterostei in Ame- rica, are searcelv di.stiniie.ishable from their Euro- pean representatives. In general conformation, the fishes composing it are not very different from the Perches; but the singular appearance of their head, which is variously armed with spines and bristles, forms a strikins distinction: and the suborbital bone is more or less extended, so as to cover the cheek and to be articulated with the preopercnlar bone. This Family includes several sjiecies of the famous Flying-fishes, Dart^loj.teri^ which have at all times attracted the attention of mankind; but not being British fishes, we cannot here enter into their history. Gen. VIII, Trigla,—Is that which of all others most characterizes the Family. The first sub- orbital bone is very large, and articulates both with the muzzle and the preopercle; the sides of the head are nearly vertical, and cube-shaped; there are two distinct dorsal fins, and beneath the pecto- ral fins there are three free rays. The English name it bears is that of Gurnard, agreeing with the French, and derived from the growling, grunting noise which they make, by means of their throat and gill, when disporting on the wave or ploughing the deep, and still more frequently when they are newly taken from the water. Eight species have