162 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



FAMILY XV. LOPHIDM. 



Scales usually absent, or replaced by bony plates, or by small grains armed with spines. 

 The tico carpal bones elongated, and forming a kind of arm to support the pectoral fin. 

 Branchial aperture round, or a vertical slit behind the pectorals. Suborbital bone want- 

 ing, except in the genus Malthjea. 



Obs. The genera which now compose this family, were for a long time arranged among 

 the cartilaginous fishes, from the apparently soft and yielding nature of their skeletons. Cuvier 

 has, however, clearly demonstrated its fibrous structure, and established its place in the natural 

 series of bony fishes after the family Gobida:. In his great work, it is designated as " Pec- 

 torales pediculees ;" which we designate, however, under the name of Lophidce, in accord- 

 ance with our general system of nomenclature. It is divided into five genera, including at 

 present about fifty species. 



GENUS LOPHIUS. Artedi, Cuvier. 



Head enormously large, broad and depressed. Mouth large, armed with slender conical 

 teeth on the jaws, palatines, vomer and pharyngeals. Tongue smooth. Branchial rays 

 six ; branchial arches three. Dorsal fins two ; the anterior rays distant, detached, forming 

 long filaments supporting fleshy slips. 



THE AMERICAN ANGLER. 



LoPIirCS AMERICANl'S. 



PLATE XXVIH. FIG. 87. 



Lnphuts piscalor, Sea Devil. Mitchill, Report, p. 28. 



L. piscatorius. It,. Lit. and Phi!. Soc. N. York, Vol. 1, p. 4G5. 



The Angler, L. id. Stoker, Mass. Report, p. 71 and 404. 



Characteristics. Intermaxillary teeth smaller, and those of the vomer larger, than in the 

 European species. Length two to three feet. 



Description. Body flat, orbicular in front, elongate and attenuated behind. Head broad, 

 depressed. Surface covered with a smooth skin. Lower jaw longest, with a series of fleshy 

 cirri an inch long arranged along its margin, and extending as far back as the pectorals. 

 Along the flanks there are also series of fleshy processes, extending to the base of the caudal 

 fin. On the central portion of the upper jaw are also two rounded pendulous processes. 

 Eyes large, vertical, longitudinally oval, with a depression between them. Supra-orbital crest 

 prominent and tubercular. 



Teeth. A single row of long slightly recurved conical unequal teeth on each side, and a 

 double row of large teeth in the upper jaw ; the lower with a single row of long acute teeth. 



