Date: Sunday f 20, 2012
Trumpet Fish Sea Fish
This curious fish can scarcely be said to be common in any part of the Mediterranean, and it is scarce everywhere else. Willoughby met with some examples in the fish market at Rome, whither they had been brought for sale as food, but at best, and in a country where very little birds and fishes furnish a supply for the table, these can add but little for that purpose, although it is admitted that what there is is of excellent quality.
Risso speaks of it as not common about Nice, and Rafinesque, at Palermo, and Dr. Gulia, in his "Fauna of Malta," make no mention of it, which omissions may in part be explained by the information we obtain, that usually it is only procured after stormy weather.
The occurrence of the Trumpet fish in Britain has only been in a few instances, of which two at least were in Cornwall. The first of these was thrown on shore in St. Austle Bay in the year 1804, and came into the hands of William Rashleigh, Esq., of the neighbouring mansion of Menabilly, who caused a drawing to be taken of it of the size of nature, and from which our own is a copy. It appears that Donovan had pos- sessed two other British examples, from which he derived his figure, as above referred to, and the fragment of another was found on the beach in Mount's Bay in the year 1853, but it was too imperfect for preservation.
From the small mouth of this fish, with the absence of teeth, we may conclude that its food is the entromostraca, or minute animals of a variety of shapes that people the ocean as insects do the land, while its little aptitude for extensive motion will account for its limited wanderings, and consequently for its rare appearance in unaccustomed places.
The ordinary size of this fish is from four to five inches in length, and the following notes of other particulars are derived from a description made from the example taken in St. Austle Bay, as before referred to, at the time of its capture. It was five inches long, and from back to the belly one inch and two eighths, in thickness three eighths of an inch, it weighed six drachms.
It was red on the back, the colour becoming more faint on the sides, and the belly was silvery. The proboscis, which to the eye measured an inch and five eighths, was formed of a bony substance, which was continued along the back, where it terminated in a sharp point, spreading in the middle, where it makes an obtuse angle, just above a small fin behind the gills.
The mouth, which is at the end of the proboscis, is covered with a valve that is fastened to the under part. The pectoral fin is small, it has two small dorsal fins, the former one having a very long spine, under which spine (and joined to it) are small projections like the teeth of a saw, there are three or four projections, very small, under the belly, which are hard, round, and transparent, the fins are whitish, the tail divided."
This description, imperfect as it is, might serve as sufficient to distinguish this fish from others, if it were not that we perceive from published figures that it is subject to some variety, and that a species much resembling it, but supposed to be distinct, has been discovered in the Mediterranean.
The denticulations which we represent on the abdominal ridge perhaps a little too strongly, if we may judge from the des cription given above and of which Donovan and Mr. Yarrell take no notice, are a remarkable instance of this variation, as is also the form of the tail, which these two last named observers represent as round, but which in our figure and the original description is described as divided.
The other species that we have referred to, (C. gracilis of Lowe and Gunther,) and which has not only been found in the Mediterranean and Madeira, but even in Japan, is only different from C. scolopax in being somewhat longer in proportion to its depth, in having a much shorter dorsal spine, and conspicuously smaller scales.
For a fuller description of our own Trumpet fish than is given above, we select the following notes from Willoughby, The body is covered with rough scales, snout very long, straight, narrow, growing wider towards the head, the mouth narrow and covered, in fact, by the small under jaw, the angle of which is depressed. Eyes large, belly with a sharp ridge, without ventral fins, which however are marked by two bones resembling teeth.
A little behind this, on the middle of the belly, is a ridge having some small elevated teeth. Anal fin with eighteen rays. Dorsal fins two, placed far behind, the first being formed principally of one long and stout spine, which is capable of some motion upward and downward, but cannot be raised upright. On its under side is a channel, on each side of which is a row of teeth. In front of this larger spine is a very small one, and behind it three others. The second dorsal has twelve rays, the tail forked.
The body oblong, and, with the gill covers, covered with scales, lips fleshy, teeth prominent, a single dorsal fin, having two orders of rays, the first portion spinous, of which each one is tipped with a free membranous appendage. Ventral fins thoracic, the tail round or straight. The evenness of the border of the first gill cover distinguishes this genus from Crenilahrus.
The name anciently applied to this class or family of fishes was Tardus, but, as a generic term this is now appropriated to the thrushes among birds, and in both instances, as well as the English name of the latter, it holds the same meaning, the best known amongst them in each instance being mottled over witn light coloured spots. A disease of the mouth is also called thrush for the same reason.
But the name of Lahrus was also in use at a remote date, and is characteristic of their prominent and fleshy lips, which are the prin- cipal organs of acute sensation, but in English these fish bear the general name of wrass, which is pronounced Wrath or Kath by fishermen of the West of England.
The Rev. Mr. Johns, in his description of the Lizard Point in Cornwall, informs us that by the fishermen there they are called Raagh, which may be the ancient British term, as in pronunciation it approaches very neat to the Welsh name Gwrach, which signifies an old woman, the Latin form of which, in the word vetida, we find to have been applied to more than one fish of a kindred shape. According to Rondeletius and Gesner, a name of the same signification, Vielle and Vieille, is applied to some of the same sorta of fishes in different parts of France.
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