Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/100

86 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 "tremendous 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 beyond 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 swallowing 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 difficulty. 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 fly 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 attempt. The ordinary method of avoiding this inconvenience,—more serious than might perhaps