234 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



Avith a lighter ring round the pupil. The dorsal and 

 anal fins are marked with oblique, black streaks. 



All the new-caught specimens we have seen, have 

 been of this colour. If the iish is exposed to the air 

 for some time, or left to lie among other tishes in the 

 lioat, the colour becomes bleached; and it thus happens 

 that the one side, that on which the fish has lain, or 

 which has been covered with other fishes, may partly 

 or wholly lose colour, while the colour of the other 

 side is more or less perfectly retained. This is a change 

 to which most fishes are liable; and caution should, 

 therefore, always be employed in the determination of 

 new colour-varieties. That there may be such varieties 

 of tlie Sea-cat", we do not intend to dispute; but several 

 of those which have been considered in this light, were 

 evidently due to this cause. During youth the colour- 

 ing of the I)odv is liiihter, and more like that of the 



the left being twice as long as the right and also nar- 

 ro^ver and more pointed. The Uvo ovaries are posteriorly 

 united and are furnished with a' wide opening duct. 



The Sea-cat is one of those fishes of which the 

 old writers have collected a number of fictitious ac- 

 counts, which have been transferred from one book to 

 another. Doth its generic name, AnarrJiicJias, and its 

 specific name, Lupus, have originated from the false 

 ideas entertained of the liabits of tins fisli. Gesner, 

 as we have remarked above, in the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century gave it the former name, which means 

 climber, in accordance with an old tradition that the 

 fish climbed up rocks and cliffs. Linn.eus retained 

 Lupus as the specific name from the old name Lupus 

 marluus. under which the Wolf-fish liad l)een generally 

 known and dreaded. Even in Hollbekg (]. c.) we find 

 the following paragraph, quoted from Lacepede: "Cruel 



Fig. IJ2. Yimiig Anarrliichas lupus from Didmslaii. Natural size. 



following species. The spots which form the transverse 

 bands are tlien more prominent, many of them being 

 as large as the pupil. The greater distinctness of the 

 spots, and tlie break at the end of the upper margin 

 of the caudal fin which \ve have already mentioned, 

 in young specimens of this species, indicate the deve- 

 lopmental relations in which it stands to the following 

 species. 



The Sea-cat has a fairly wide, muscular oesophagus, 

 whicli opens into a somewhat saccate stomach, near the 

 bottom of which lies tlie pylorus. There are no pyloric 

 appendages whatever. The intestine is long, wide and 

 of a tliin and fragile texture. It forms three bends, 

 and ends in a short, widened rectum, like a reversed 

 cone. The air-bladder is wanting. The liver consists 

 eitlier of two lobes, of fairly equal size and closely 

 united, or of three, the middle one lying transversely 

 across the anterior cMid of the abdominal cavity, and 



as the Shark, it works terrible havoc amonij its own 

 genus, and displays the same voracity in the piscine 

 Avorld as the wild-beast from ^vhich it derives its name, 

 among the defenceless herds." We give this quotation 

 only as a specimen of the old prejudice against this 

 fish for its rapacity, and of the length of time for 

 which, when once rooted, sucli a |)rejudice may endure. 

 The Sea-cat is anything but a fish-of-prey, in the 

 meaning generally attached to the term. To convince 

 oneself of this, one need only examine its remarkable 

 dentition, large masticatory muscles and short jaws, 

 which do not axlmit of the wide opening of the gape 

 which characterizes the true fishes-of-prey or those col- 

 loquially called voracious {svalgfiskar). The sti-ucture 

 of the mouth, on the contrary, belongs to a creature 

 that lives on very hard substances, which must be 

 crushed before they can be swallowed. It is difficult 

 to conceive a crushing-machine more suited to its pur- 



" Cf. Hdu.berg, 1. c, p. 25. 



