52 PICKED DOG. 



This species is a common article of food witli fishermen, 

 especially in the west of England ; and is valued also by some 

 who are far above the necessity of classing it with their ordinary 

 articles of subsistence. It is used both fresh and salted; and 

 Lacepede, who speaks unfavourably of its flesh, informs us that 

 in the north of Europe the eggs, which are about the size of 

 a small orange, and consist solely of a pale-coloured yolk, are 

 in high esteem. . If prejudice could be got over, there is no 

 doubt that they might form an agreeable, as well as a very 

 nourishing article of food. 



The following, among many other instances, will shew the 

 error of some naturalists, who have expressed the belief that 

 examples of abnormal formation will not occur where animals 

 are absolutely beyond the control of civilized man: — A friend 

 was in possession of a Picked Dog that had a pair of heads, 

 with the separation complete so far back as behind the pectoral 

 fins; and the fisherman who obtained it informed me that 

 when found in his boat, where it must have been dropped 

 after the parent had been caught, the egg was attached to it. 

 Distortion in the hind parts is not uncommon, although only 

 in foetal instances, since such examples could not long exist 

 at liberty. 



The usual length is from eighteen inches to two feet; the 

 females, as in most species of this great family, being the 

 largest, and I have seen an example, in which the blunted 

 dorsal spines betokened age, that weighed twelve pounds. The 

 head is depressed, the snout projecting, mouth far under, and 

 armed with flat cutting teeth; nostrils midway between the mouth 

 and extremity of the snout. The tongue thick and fleshy; eye 

 large, spiracles rather elevated; gill openings five, at the origin 

 of the pectoral fins. The body round and tapering; dorsal fins 

 two, on the anterior border of each a stout, sharp, and slightly 

 curved spine. The first dorsal at about midway between the 

 pectorals and ventrals; no anal fin; pectoral fins wide; upj)er 

 lobe of the tail short, wide, and simple, without a notch; 

 ventrals short, concealing the vent. The upper parts a dark 

 ash-colour, below white. 



I have seen what appeared in all other respects to be no 

 other than a variety of this species, but which was all over of 

 an intense black colour, except a narrow line of dusky yellow 



