140 



LARGEK LAUNCE. 



WIDE-MOUTHED LAUNCE. 



Tohianus, 



Ammodiitcs tobianus, 



appat, 

 lanceolatus, 



WiLLOUGHBY; well described, but with 

 refereuce to a figure of another (ish. 



Jago; in Ray's Synopsis, f. 12. 



LlNN^US. CuviER. 



Fleming; British Animals, p. 201. 



Jenyns; Manual, p. 483. 



Yarrell; British Fishes, vol. ii, p. 424 



Risso. Bloch; pi. 75. Donovan; pi. 33. 



GuNTHER; Catalogue British Museum, 

 vol. iv, p. 384. 



I 



This is a fish of great activity, as miglit be judged from its 

 slender form, and well-constructed shape; and it is also 

 voracious, so that it pursues and devours some which might 

 be supposed little likely to become its prey. Its gape also is 

 capacious, by the aid of which it has been able to swallow the 

 hook, baited with a lask or slice cut from the shining side of 

 a Mackarel, and Avhich was intended to have proved an attraction 

 to a much larger prize. It has happened not uiifrequently 

 that the Lesser Launce, v/hich formerly was believed to be in 

 the half grown condition of its own race, has been found in its 

 stomach. 



The favourite resort of this species is in much deeper water 

 than is frequented by the Lesser Launce, and thus it has been 

 known to have been devoured by the larger fishes which have 

 been caught at ten leagues from land, at the entrance of the 

 British Channel, in a depth of forty-five fathoms; and this, too, 

 in the middle of the summer, although that is the season when 

 it is common for it to draw near the land; in doing which it 



