CLASS PISCES. 247 



Chironectes. Antennarius, Commers. 



Free rays on the head, as in lophius ; the first of 

 which is slender, and frequently terminating in a 

 tuft ; the succeeding ones, augmented by a membrane, 

 are sometimes much enlarged, and at others united 

 into a fin. The body and head are compressed ; 

 the mouth cleft vertically ; the only opening of the 

 branchiae, which are furnished with four rays, is a 

 canal and a small hole behind the pectoral ; the 

 dorsal occupies nearly the whole length of the back. 

 The entire body is frequently provided with cutaneous 

 appendages ; there are four branchiae ; the natatory 

 bladder is large, and the intestine moderate, and 

 without cceca. These fishes, by filling their enor- 

 mous stomachs with air, are enabled, as well as the 

 tetrodontes, to expand their belly like a balloon ; on 

 land their pairs of fins enable them to creep almost 

 like small quadrupeds, the pectorals, from their posi- 

 tion, performing the functions of hind feet, and thus 

 they live out of water for two or three days. They 

 are found in the seas of hot climates, and several of 

 them were confounded by Linnaeus under the name 

 of Lophius histrio l . 



N.B. The Baudroye Ferguson, Lacep. Phil. Trans. LIII. xiii. 

 The Lophius cornubicus, of Sh., Borlase. Cornw. xxvii. 6. The L. 

 barbalus, Gm. Act. Stockh. 1779, fasc. iii. pi. iv., are merely 

 altered specimens of the Piscatorius. The L. wonopterygius, Shaw, 

 Nat. Misc. 202 and 203, is a torpedo disfigured hy the stuffer. 



1 Species Chiron, pictus, Cuv. ; or Lophius histrio-pictus, Bl., 

 Schn. 142 ; or Mem. Mus. IIT. xvi. 1. Ch. tumidus, Cuv., Mus., 

 Ad. Fred, p. 56. Ch. Icevigaius, Cuv. ; or i. gibbus, Mitch, op. 



