ACANTHOPTERYGII. ;}(]{) 



article of food, but (if it be the same) Juvenal informs us 

 that under the first emperors of Rome, and in the time of 

 the greatest luxury in that capital of the world, it seldom 

 appeared on the tables of the rich and sumptuous. 



Nee raullum cupias, cum sit tibi gobio tantum 

 In loculis. 



Which Martial seems to confirm when he says, in the 

 thirteenth book of his Epigrams, 



In Venetis sint lauta licet convivia terris, 

 Principium coena? gobius esse solet. 



This fish seems to have been known by Aristotle and 

 Athenaeus: both writers appear to speak of it under the name 

 of rpayog, {the goat,) from a sort of fancied resemblance in its 

 black and united catopes to the beard of that quadruped. 

 Paul, of Egina, considered the flesh of this animal as a laxa- 

 tive, and used to make pills of it. 



The habit attributed to Lophius piscatorius, sometimes 

 called the fishing frog, of deceiving its prey by means of the 

 worm-like filaments attached to the head, which is mentioned 

 in the text, would, if satisfactorily established, carry the 

 intellectual faculties of this species beyond those of most of 

 its class. 



The Chironectes are in the division of pectorales 

 PEDICULATI. These fishes, from the peculiar conformation 

 of their pectoral fins, can creep on land almost like little qua- 

 drupeds. The pectorals, by reason of their position, perform 

 the office of hinder feet. They can live out of the water for 

 two or three days. They inhabit the seas of warm climates. 

 The word chironectes is Greek, and indicates the peculiar 

 faculty which the species possess, (x l P> a hand, and vew, to 

 swim.) 



VOL. X. B b 



