This section is from the book "A Manual Of British Vertebrate Animals", by Leonard Jenyns. Also available from Amazon: A Manual Of British Vertebrate Animals.
C. Scolopax, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. 1. p. 415. Block, Ichth. pl. 123. f. 1. Don. Brit. Fish. vol. iii. pl. 63. Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 117. Shaw, Nat. Misc. vol. xiv. pl. 584. Flem. Brit. An. p. 220. Cuv. Reg. An. torn. 11. p. 268. Trumpet-Fish, Will. Hist. Pise. p. 160. c. xi. tab. I. 25. f. 2. Couch in Linn. Trans, vol. xiv. p. 89. Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. 1. p. 302. Snipe-nosed Trumpet-Fish, Penn. Brit. Zool. (Edit. 1812). vol. iii. p. 190.
* Mag, of Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 18.
† Reg. An. torn. ii. p. 256. note (2).
From four to five inches.
(Form). "Body oval, compressed: snout elongated, the jaw-bones forming a tube extending an inch and a half before the eyes; mouth placed at the extremity, small, without teeth: eyes large: back elevated, forming a slight ridge, and ending in a short spine just in advance of the long and strong denticulated spine of the first dorsal fin: scales on the body hard, rough, minutely ciliated at the free edge, the surface granulated: first dorsal with but three spinous rays (generally said to be four); the first three times as long as, and also much stronger than, the others, pointed, moveable, and toothed like a saw on the under part, constituting a formidable weapon of defence; the other spines short, but their points projecting beyond the membrane by which they are united: the rays of the second dorsal soft: anal elongated; the rays short: pectorals small: ventrals also small, with a depression behind in which they can be lodged.
D. 4 - 12; A. 18; C. 16; P. 17; V. 4.
(Colours). Back red, the sides rather lighter; sides of the head and belly silvery, tinged with gold-colour: irides silvery, streaked with red; pupils black: all the fins grayish white." Yarr.
An individual of this species is recorded to have been thrown on shore at Menabilly near Fowey, Cornwall, early in the year 1804*. Donovan appears to have been acquainted with one or two other instances in which it had occurred on the western coasts of England. Common in the Mediterranean.
 
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