ACANTIIOPTERYGII. 309 



five feet ; and the extreme hideousness of its appearance has procured it some celebrity. [There are few parts of 

 the muddy shores of the British islands where these ugly and voracious fish are not to be met with ; and such is its 

 propensity to keep its great mouth in exercise, that when captured in a net a'ong with other fishes, it speedily 

 begins to swallow its companions, especially if Flounders, which appear to be its favourite food. On some coasts, 

 it is sought for on account of the live fish in its stomach, its own flesh being but small in quantity, and held in 

 little estimation. Another European species, L. palviparws, has its second dorsal lower, and five vertebra; fewer 

 in the spine. 



Chiionectes. These have, like the last genera, free rays on the head, of which the first is small, and often 

 terminating by a tuft ; and those behind it are enlarged by a membrane, which is sometimes very broad, and at 

 Mher times they are united into a tin. Their body and head are compressed, and their mouth opens vertically. 

 Their gill membranes have four rays, and have no opening but a small hole behind the pectorals. Their dorsal 

 extends along the whole back, and they often have cutaneous appendages all over their bodies. They have four 

 gills, a large air-bladder, and a moderate intestine without coeca. They can inflate their great stomach with air, 

 in the same manner as the Tetrodons blow up their bellies like balloons. On the ground, their two pairs of fins 

 enable them to crawl along like little quadrupeds; and the pectorals, in consequence of their position, perform 

 the functions of hind legs. They can live out of the water for two or three days. They are found only in the seas 

 of warm countries, and /Eneas confounded many of them under the name L. Ziislrio. [In some of the muddy 

 estuaries on the north coast of Australia, from which the tide ebbs far back in the dry season, these Frog-fishes 

 are so abundant, and capable of taking such vigorous leaps, that those who have visited the places have, at first 

 sight, taken them for birds.] One might separate the species in which the second and third rays are united into 

 a fin, and sometimes also joined to the other dorsals. 



Malthut. These have the head greatly extended and flattened, principally by the projection' of the sub-opercu- 

 luni; the eyes are forwards ; the snout projecting, with a little horn ; the mouth under the muzzle, of mean size, 

 and protractile ; the gills sustained by six or seven rays, and opening by a hole above each pectoral. They have a 

 simple dorsal, which is soft and small ; and there are no free rays in the head. The body is studded with osseous 

 tubercles, and bordered round with cirri. They have neither coeca nor air-bladder. 



The remaining genus of this family is Batraehu»,the Frog-fishes, properly so called. They have the head flattened 

 horizontally, and much larger than the body ; the gape deeply cleft ; the operculum and sub-operculum spinous; 

 six gill-rays; the ventrals straight, attached under the throat, with only three rays, of which the first is broad and 

 lengthened : the pectorals are carried by a short arm, resulting from an elongation of the carpal bones : their first 

 dorsal is short, supported by three spinous rays; the second is soft and long, and has the anal corresponding to it; 

 their lips are often garnished with filaments ; their stomach is an oblong sac ; their intestines are short, and with- 

 out cceca; and their air-vessel is anteriorly deeply forked. They lurk in the sand, in order to swallow small 

 fishes, in the same manner as the members of the last genus ; and it is thought that wounds inflicted by their 

 spines are dangerous. They inhabit both oceans. In some, the scales are smooth, and tiny have a membrane 

 over the eye; others are scaly, and want that membrane. [None of them appear in the authenticated lists of 

 British fishes.] 



THE FOURTEENTH FAMILY OF THE ACANTIIOPTERYGII. 



Labridje (the Wrasse, or Rock-fish Family). 



This family are easily known by their appearance. They have an oblong body, covered with scales ; 

 and a single dorsal, supported anteriorly by spinous rays, often furnished with membranous lamina.-. 

 The jaws arc covered bj fleshy lips. There are three hones in the pharynx,— two upper ones attached 

 to the cranium, and a large under one. All the three are furnished with teeth, arranged like a pave- 

 ment in some, and pointed, or in laminae, in others; but generally stronger than is usual in the class 

 of Fishes. Their intestinal canal is either without cceca, or with two small ones; and they have a large 

 and strong air-bladder. They admit of division into various genera and subgenera. 



Labrtu, or Lipped — that is, Thick-lipped — Fishes. A very numerous genua, the species of which 



much resemble each other in their oblong form, and in their double fle8hy lips, from which th<\ reo i\'- 



their name. One of these lips adheres Immediately to the jaw-bones, and the other to the suborbitals. 



They have thickly-set gills, with live rays. Their conical maxillary teeth (of which the middle and front 



are the largest), and their cylindrical teeth in the pharynx, are arranged like a pavement, — the 



upper ones with two large plates, anil the unih r w it h one only, which fits to the Others. Their stomach 



has no cul-de-sac, but is continued in an intestine without coeca, which, after two reduplications, ter- 

 minates in a wide rectum. The air-bladder is single, and strong. There arc several subgenera. 



Labrtu, properly so called, vulgarly termed "Old Wives of the Sea." Tbej have no spines or notches in the 

 culum or pre-opercnlnm, and the operculum and cheek are covered with scales. The lateral line is nearly 



_ut. The £ pean seas furnish several Bpecies, which, from variations of colour in the same species, an 



e isily distinguished from each other. /-. maeulatut, the Balloon Wrasse, is a t""t or eighteen inches long, with 

 > .one spit doi sal ; bluet)r greenish above ; white belotfi marked all over with yellow, and 



