136 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



to form a liollnw, perhnps ;i foot in widtli, \vhich ex- 

 tends under the stone. If one ai)]n'oaches cautiously, 

 one may see the head of a Toad-Fish peeji out. The 

 tish is not easy to see, but with a little care you can 

 distinguish its broad mouth, the fine, graceful filaments 

 on its jaAVS and the rest of its head, and its eyes, which 

 are really beautiful. Occasionally, too, a lai-ge portion 

 of its body is in sight; but at the slightest noise it 

 draws back under the stone, soon to reappear once 

 more. It lies here perhaps only in order safely to 

 conceal itself, or perhaps to watch for its prey; but 

 during July and August it seems to be engaged other- 

 wise: at this time it apparently keeps guard over its 

 eggs or its young. The eggs — of the size of dust- 

 shot — adhere to the bottom of the stone, or, it may 

 be, several hundred tiny Toad-Fish have attached them- 

 selves there by the help of the disk which surrounds 



the Ijase of the still nnabsorbed yolk of the egg. If 

 one drives the parent fish from the hole, it soon hurries 

 back again". In winter, in Massachusetts, the northern 

 portion of its geographical range, the Toad-Fish appar- 

 ently withdraws on occasion to deep Avater; but dur- 

 ing this season it generally buries itself in the mud 

 and lies there in a torpid state. 



If our European Toad-Fish, as is highly probable, 

 leads the same or a simiku' life and is also a distinct 

 shore-fish, it is remarkable in the highest degree that 

 it has been found off Kullen, but neither on the coast 

 of France, nor in an}' other place north of the Spanish 

 Peninsula. Perhaps Nilsson is right in his assumption 

 that this fish has been found on more than one occa- 

 sion and at more than one spot, but has been thrown 

 away by tlie fishermen on account of its resemblance 

 to the Cottidce. 



'AM. 



LOPHIIDiE OR PEDICULATI. 



Form of the body variable, flat or oral. Skin naked, without scales., or tvith scattered protuberances or spines. 

 Eyes small. First dorsal fin more or less entirely broken up into free, tentacular or spinous rays. Anal fin, 

 and sometimes the second dorsal, comparatively short. Basal bones of the pectoral fins brachiate, two or three in 

 number; the rays arficulating only with the lowest of these bones. Jaw-teeth pointed, cardiform, mobile, of uni- 

 form shape, but often varying in size. Gill-openings set in the form of large or small holes behind or above the 

 base of the pectoral fins. Branchiostegal rays 6. Gills 2'^!^, 3 or S^/^- Pseudobranchice generally wanting''. 

 System of the lateral line of average development. Rays of the pectoral fins undivided. Rays of the caudal fin 



about 0. Skeleton only slightly ossified. 



The genus Lophius" of Artedi and Linnaeus is 

 replaced in the works of modern authors either, accord- 

 ing to Cope'' and Bleeker', by a special order, Pedi- 

 culati or Antennarii — the three species of Linnaeus 



{Lophius piscatorius, L. vespertilio and L. Jiistrio) cor- 

 responding to the three families within this order as 

 defined by Bleeker — or according to BgxaPxVRTE-' and 

 GOntiieh^, by a faniily among the Acanthopterygians, 



" These observations have received from Rydek (American Naturalist, vol. XX (1886). p. 77) tlie additions that it is the male that 

 watches the eggs and the fry, that the latter remain fast, as we have described, until the yolk-sac, which forms the adliesive disk, has been 

 absorbed, and that the young are thus much better capable of free motion, when they leave the egg, than those of other fishes. 

 In Lophinn, it is true, the pseudobranchioe are present, but they are very small. 



' AiiT., Gm. Pie., p. 62; Lm., Syst. .Vat., ed. X, torn. I, p. 236. 



<' Trans. Anier. Phil. Soc, Philad., N. ser., vol. XIV, art. V, p. 458 (Pediculati). Cf. also Gill, .-in: Fam. Fish., Smiths. Misc. 

 Coll. No. 247, pp. XLI and 2. Cut. Fish. E. Coast North Amer., Smiths. Misc. Coll. No. 283, p. 6; Jord., Gilb., Syn. Fish. N. Amer., 

 Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 16, p. 843. 



« Atl. Ichth., tome V, p. 1 {Baudroies = Antennarii). 



f Isis, 1833, p. 1200 {Lophidai). 



Cat. Brit. Mns. Fi.fh., vol. Ill, p. 178. 



