524 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



THE ANGLERS. FAMILY LOPHIIDjE 



This family is the only Gulf of Maine representative of the small but ana- 

 tomically remarkable tribe of pediculate fishes in which the base of the pectoral 

 fin takes the form of an arm (pseudobrachium) formed by the elongation of the 

 carpal bones (actinosts), which are so short in all other bony fishes that they are 

 not noticeable externally. Coupled with this peculiar structure of the pectorals, 

 the gill openings are reduced to small apertures in or near the axils ("armpits") of 

 these fins. The anglers are characterized among their immediate relatives by a 

 very large and very much flattened head, enormous mouth, and the fact that there 

 are but two bones in each "arm." One species is common in the Gulf of Maine. 96 



178. Gooseflsh (Lophius piscatorius Linnaeus) 



Monkfish; Angler; Bellowsfish; Allmouth; Molligut; Fishingfrog 

 Jordan aud Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2713. 



Fig. 273. — Angler (Lophius piscatorius) 



Description. — The goosefish is so unlike any other Gulf of Maine fish that, 

 once seen, there is no danger of mistaking it. It is so much compressed, dorso- 

 ventrally, and so soft in texture that when left stranded on the shore it flattens 

 down until hardly thicker than a skate. As seen from above its head is rounded, 

 disklike, about as broad as long, and enormous in comparison with its body, which 

 is so narrow and tapering back of the pectorals as to give the fish a tadpolelike 

 appearance. Its most noticeable character is its enormous mouth, which is directed 

 upward, with its lower jaw projecting so far beyond the upper that most of the 

 lower teeth are freely exposed even when the mouth is closed. Both jaws are 

 armed with long, slender, curved teeth, all alike in form but of various sizes and 

 very sharp. In a large fish some of them may be as much as an inch long. The 

 teeth in the lower jaw are in 1 to 3 rows, mostly large, while in the upper jaw 

 the few in the middle (there is a toothless space in the midline) are largest, with 

 a single row of smaller ones flanking them; and there are likewise several rows 



»» Several other pediculate fishes have been trawled on the continental slope off New England, as described by Qoode and 

 Bean (1896), none of them, however, within the geographic limits to which this report is confined. 



