ACANTHOPTERYGII. 185 



are four branchiae; the natatory bladder is large, and the intestine 

 moderate, and without caeca. These fishes, by filling their enor- 

 mous stomachs with air, are enabled to expand their belly like a 

 balloonj on land, their pairs of fins enable them to creep almost like 

 small quadrupeds, the pectorals, from their position, 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. ( 1 ) 



We might distinguish those species in which the second and third 

 rays are united in a fin which is even sometimes joined to the second 

 dorsal.(2) 



Malthe, Cuv., 



The head excessively enlarged and flattened, chiefly by the pro- 

 jection and volume of the suboperculum; the eyes forwards; the snout 

 salient, like a small hornj the mouth, beneath the snout, moderate 

 and protractile; the branchiae supported by six or seven rays, and 

 opening on the dorsal surface by a hole above each pectoral; a sin- 

 gle, small, and soft dorsal; the body studded with osseous tubercles, 

 with cirri the whole length of its sides; but there are no free rays on 

 the head. The caeca and natatory bladder are wanting.(3) 



Batrachus, B1. Schn. Batracoides, Lac. (4) 

 The head horizontally flattened, broader than the body; the mouth 



(1) Species. Chiron, pidus, Cuv., or Lophius histrio-pidus, Bl., Schn., 142, or 

 Mem. Mus. Ill, xvi, 1; Ch. tumidus, Cuv., Mus. Ad. Fred., p. 56; Ch. kevigatus, 

 Cuv., or L. gibbus, Mitch, op. cit. I, vi, 9; Ch. marmoratus, or L. Hist. Marm., 

 Hi., Schn., 142, Klein, Misc., Ill, iii, 4, or L. raninus. Tiles., Mem. Nat. Mosc, 

 II, xvi; CA. hispidus, Bl., Schn. 143, Mem. Mus., Ill, xvii, 2; CA. scuber, lb., 

 XVI, 2, or Guaperva, Marcgr., 150 (but not the fig-ure), L. histrio, Bl. pi- cxi; 

 Ch. biocellatus, Cuv., Mem. Mus. Ill, xvii, 3; Ch. ocellatus, ov L. histr. acelL, Bl., 

 Schn., 143, Parra, 1; Ch. variegatus, ov L. chironede, Lacep., I, xiv, 2,,or L. pic- 

 tus, Shaw, Gen. Zool. V, part II, pi. clxv; CA. furcipilis, Cuv., M^m. Mus. Ill, 

 xvii, 1; Laet., Ind. Occ, 574, a figure given for the guaperva, Marcgr. 150; 

 Ch. nummifer, Cuv., Mem. Mas. Ill, xvii, 4; Ch. Commersonii, Cuv., Lacep. I, 

 xiv, 3, and very badly, Ren., I, xliii, 212; Ch. tuberosus, Cuv. 



(2) Ch. pundatus, Cuv., Mem. Mus. Ill, xviii, 2, and Lacep. Ann. Mus. IV, Iv, 

 3;Ch.unipin7iis, Cuv., Mem. Mus. Ill, xviii, 3, Lacep. Ann. Mus. Ill, xviii, 4. 



(3) Lophius vespertilio, L., Bl, 110; Malth. nasuta, Cuv., Seb. I, Ixxiv, 2; M 

 notata, Cuv.; M. angusta, Cuv., the skeleton of which is found in Rosenthal, PL 

 Icthy., t. XIX, 2; M. truncata, Cuv.; M. stellata, Cav., or Lophius stellatus, 

 Vahl., Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat. Copenh , IV, pi. iii, f. 3, 4, the same as the Lophit 

 faujas, Lacep., I, xi, 2, 3, and the Lophius ruber, Til., Krusenstein's Voy., LXI. 



(4) bariici-^os, frog, from their broad head. 



Vol. II. Y 



