﻿gill] 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE ANGLER 



50I 



chial apertures mostly in the lower axils of the pectorals, in some 

 continued round the pectorals in front; the pectorals with two 

 actinosts and little geniculated but directed outwards, the ventrals 

 moderate, and the first dorsal represented by a tin of three sp 

 and, in advance of them, by three free spines of which the first is 

 generally longest. 



Fig. 94. — Shoulder girdle of the angler, showing the pseudobrachium or false- 

 arm with its 2 actinosts (a), the hypercoracoid (hr), hypoeoracoid (ho), and 

 postscaptda (ps) as well as proscapula or ccenosteon. (After Mettenheimer.) 



While the head, as a whole, is much depressed, there is no funda- 

 mental difference between it and that of a pediculate with a com- 

 pressed head, such as that of an ordinary Antennariid. The cranium 

 itself is narrow and the breadth results from the flaring outwards 

 of the opercular apparatus. In the earliest stages, indeed, the head 

 is compressed and then the young fish lives near the surface of the 

 sea and it is only when it takes to the bottom that the depressed 

 form is assumed. 



For a long time only a couple of species of this family were known. 

 but successive deep-sea explorations have brought to light quite a 



