Fig. 409.—Sea-robin, Prionotus evolans (L.). Wood's Hole, Mass.
Lepidotrigla, with larger scales, has many species on the coasts of Europe as well as in China and Japan. Lepidotrigla alata, a red fish with a peculiar bony, forked snout, is common in Japan. The American species of gurnards, having teeth on the palatine, belong to the genus Prionotus. Northward these fishes, known as sea-robins, live along the shores in shallow water. In the tropics they descend to deeper water, assuming a red color. Prionotus carolinus is the commonest species in New England. Prionotus strigatus, the striped sea-robin, and Prionotus tribulus, the rough-headed sea-robin, are common species along the Carolina coast. None have much value as food, being dry and bony. Numerous fossil species referred to Trigla are found in the Miocene. Podopteryx, from the Italian Miocene, with small pectorals and very large ventrals, perhaps belongs also to this family, but its real affinities are unknown.
Fig. 410.—Flying Gurnard, Cephalacanthus volitans (L.). Virginia.
Fig. 411.—Peristedion miniatum Goode & Bean. Depths of the Gulf Stream.
The Peristediidæ.—The Peristediidæ are deep-water sea-robins, much depressed, with flat heads, a bony coat of mail, and two free feelers on the pectoral fin instead of three. The species of Peristedion are occasionally taken with the dredge. Peristedion cataphractum is rather common in Europe. The extinct Peristedion urcianense is described from the Pliocene of Orciano, Tuscany.
The Flying Gurnards: Cephalacanthidæ.—The flying gurnards, Cephalacanthidæ, differ in numerous respects and are among the most fantastic inhabitants of the sea. The head is short and bony, the body covered with firm scales, and the very long, wing-like pectoral fin is divided into two parts, the posterior and larger almost as long as the rest of the body. This fin is beautifully colored with blue and brownish red. The first spine of the dorsal fin is free from the others and more or less prolonged. The few species of flying gurnard are much alike, ranging widely in the tropical seas, and having a slight power of flight. The flying robin, or batfish, called in Spanish volador or murcielago, Cephalacanthus volitans, is common on both coasts of the Atlantic, reaching a length of eighteen inches. Cephalacanthus peterseni is found in Japan and Cephalacanthus orientalis in the East Indies, Japan, and Hawaii. The immature fishes have the pectoral fins much shorter than in the adult, and differ in other regards. Cephalacanthus pliocenicus occurs in the Lower Pliocene of Orciano, Tuscany.
Petalopteryx syriacus, an extinct flying gurnard found in the Cretaceous of Mount Lebanon, is an ally of Cephalacanthus. The body is covered with four-angled bony plates, and the first (free) spine of the dorsal is enlarged.