844 CONTRIBUTIOXS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV. 
Family CXXIV.— LOPHIID^. 
{The Fishing Frogs.) 
Head wide, depressed, very large. Body contracted, conical, taper- 
ing rapidly backward from the shoulders. Month exceedingly large, 
terminal, opening into an enormous stomach; ii])per jaw protractile; 
maxillary without supplementary bone; lower jaw projecting ; both jaws 
with very strong,’ unequal, cardiform teeth, some of the teeth canine- 
like, most of them depressible; vomer and palatines usually with strong- 
teeth. Gill-openings comparatively large, in the lower axil of the pecto- 
rals. Pseudobranchim iiresent. Gill-rakers none. Skin mostly smooth, 
naked, with many dermal flaps about the head. Spinous dorsal of three 
isolated, tentacle-like spines on the head, and three smaller ones behind, 
which fcrni a continuous fin; second dorsal moderate, similar to the anal ; 
pectoral members scarcely geniculated, each with two actinosts and with 
elongate pseudobracbia; veutrals jugular, I, o, widely separated. Py- 
loric coeca present. A single genus, with three or more species, living 
on sea-bottoms; remarkable for their great voracity. 
{Pediculati part, geuus Lojihius Giiatlier, iii, 178-182.) 
466. -LOPIIIU S Liunteus. 
Fishing Frogs. 
(Artedi; Linnasus, Syst. Nat. 1758: type Zop7ia/spiscafort?<s L.) 
Characters of the genus included above. {Lophius, the ancient name 
of L. 2 )iscatorius, Irom /.ofoq, a crest.) 
1302. Li. pasCtitoricBS. — Fishing-frog; MonTc-fish; Goose-fish; All-mouth; Bellows- 
fish ; Angler. 
Brownish, mottled, below white; mouth behind the hyoid bone im- 
maculate; pectorals and caudal black at tip ; peritoneum black. Body 
depressed, tapering, scarcely longer than head. Humeral spine with 
three points, of which the posterior is the longest. Head surrounded 
with a fringe of barbels; top of head, in young, with many strong 
spines. Anterior dorsal spine elongate, fleshy at tip. I). I-I-I, III — 
10; A. 9. L. 3 feet. Xorth Atlantic, on both coasts; generally com- 
mon, from Xorth Carolina northward. A fish of singular ugliness of 
appearance. 
(Lian. Syst. Nat.; Guutlier, iii, 179; Lophius americanus Cuv. & Val. xii, 380.) 
