MONKFISH. 75 



but Skates, tlie Monk, and others of that family are harder, 

 and afford nourishment of a stronger kind." — B. 1, C. 93. 



Lacepede describes this fish as attaining the length of seven 

 or eight feet, and Rondeletius had seen it about the length of 

 a- man, and weighing one hundred and sixty pounds; but 

 with us commonly measures from four to five feet, with a 

 breadth at the pectoral fins considerably exceeding half the 

 length. The general figure of the body is much depressed, 

 but most so anterior to the termination of the ventral fins. 

 The head flat and round; mouth terminal, with rows of short, 

 sharp, hooked teeth in lengthened order, and intervals between 

 the rows; nostrils at the border of the head, near the mouth, 

 and having a short loose process projecting from it. Eyes 

 small, separate, on the top of the head, all but the pupil 

 covered with the common skin. Spiracles large, half-moon- 

 shaped, their convevity forward, — considerably behind the 

 eyes. Gill openings five, on the lower surface. The pectoral 

 fins widely spread, encompassing the sides of the head without 

 being united to it; the ventrals larger than in any known 

 Sharks or Rays. The skin rough all over the upper surface; 

 a row of spines down the back to the first dorsal fin; a half 

 circle of them behind each side, and also, in some examples, 

 along the anterior margin of the pectorals, as well as of the 

 dorsal fins and tail. Dorsal fins two, on the more slender 

 part of the body, behind the ventrals. The tail irregular, and 

 the lower half more extended than the upper. Colour sandy 

 grey, speckled above, white below. In young examples, which 

 are often mottled with yellow or green, there is sometimes a 

 white line extending across the shoulders. I have seen a 

 full-grown example without the usual line of spines along the 

 back. 



In the anatomical structure of this fish the pectoral fins are 

 much like what we shall find in the Skates, but the jointed 

 rays do not proceed so close to the margin of the side; but 

 stop short, and serve as the basis of pencils of smaller fibres, 

 as do the ventrals also. On minute dissection it has been 

 found to possess ears, of simple structure, such as Monro de- 

 tected also in the Common Skate, Raia hatis ; and on the top 

 of its short and rounded head there is the fontanel or opening 

 where the brain is covered only M'ith the firm skin, as in the 



