ANGLER. 217 



depression between them; vision toward the sides. Round 

 the body from head to tail a series of membranous processes, 

 flat and lobulated, but of some variety in shape, the longest 

 round the head. Skin smooth, loose, and slimy. Strong 

 tubercles behind the eyes; the head covered with numerous 

 irregular lines, from which proceeds a tenacious slime. Two 

 short soft processes, already referred to, above the upper jaw; 

 between them a slender upright filament, its interior structure 

 bony, and which is joined to the bony structure of the head, 

 in some cases by a ring joint, in others a portion of the 

 ring is formed of soft substance. This forms the fishing-rod 

 and line, its termination expanded, soft, hanging down like a 

 bait, and in this example the whole was nine inches long. 

 Behind this are five slender processes, obscurely united by a 

 membrane, which may be regarded as the first dorsal fin, these 

 processes or rays becoming gradually shorter; second dorsal 

 and anal opposite each other, the former having twelve rays, 

 the latter ten; pectoral fins horizontal, with twenty-four rays, 

 joined to the body by a lengthened wrist, which is hid under 

 the skin; and the longitudinal direction of the bones of the 

 w r rist causes this fin to be placed far behind, yet not so far as 

 the gill-opening; which is situated behind it, and is so open in 

 consequence of the low nature of its membrane and the length 

 of the six slender branchial bony rays that by fishermen the 

 pair are termed pockets. The ventral fins resemble slender 

 paws, with six rays. Tail slightly rounded, with eight rays; 

 all the fins thick and fleshv, with lobes or crenations at the 

 border. The colour above is of various shades of dark or 

 ashy grey, mottled, and in a younger condition prettily and 

 regularly striped; white below; extremities of the fins often 

 red. 



Doctor Borlase, in his "Natural History of Cornwall," has 

 described a fish, under the name of the Long Angler, which 

 he supposed to be a distinct species, but which is now believed 

 to have been a mutilated example of the fish we have described. 

 He says it was of a longer form, the head more bony, rough 

 and aculeated; with none of the fin-like appendages round 

 the head, but there was a series of them on each side of the 

 thinner part of the body, beginning under the (second) dorsal 



fin, and reaching to within two inches of the tail. On the 

 VOL. II. 2 F 



