246 ORDER ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



of the body, very broad and depressed, and spinous 

 in many places ; the mouth deeply cleft, and armed 

 with pointed teeth ; the lower jaw furnished with 

 numer . , cirri ; two distinct dorsals, some rays of the 

 first separated before, free and moveable on the head ; 

 the branchial membrane forming a very large sac, open- 

 ing in the axilla, and supported by six very long rays ; 

 the operculum small. There are but three branchiae 

 on each side. It is asserted that these fishes live in 

 the mud, where, by agitating the rays of their head, 

 they attract smaller ones, who take the often enlarged 

 and fleshy extremities of those rays for worms, and 

 thus Lecome their victims; it is also said that they can 

 seize or retain them in their branchial sac ! . They 

 have two very short cceca near the origin of the in- 

 testine, but no natatory bladder. 



L. piscatorhis, L., Bl. 87. Sea devil, Galanga, &c. 

 (the Angler). A large fish of from four to five feet 

 in length, inhabiting the seas of Europe, whose 

 hideous figure has rendered it celebrated. 



L. parvipinnis, Cuv. A very similar species that is 

 found in the same seas ; its second dorsal, however, is 

 lower, and it has only twenty-five vertebrae, while the 

 piscatorius has thirty 2 . 



1 Geoffroy, Ann. du Mus. X. p. 108. 



2 We are ignorant whether it is the Lophius budecassa of MM. 

 Spinola and Risso or not, that species heing described as more 

 fawn-coloured and varied than the common one. 



Add the Loph. setigerus, Vahl. Soc. Hist. Nat. Copenh. iv. p. 

 215, and pi. iii. f. 5 and 6, improperly named viviparus, by Bl. Syst. 

 pi. xxxii. 



[N.B. 



