174 PROOEEDINOS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.39. 



out the day on the shingle at the bottom of their tank, but arousing 

 from their lethargy and swimming about in search of food on tlie 

 approach of night." The Alaskan wolffish {AnarrJiicJias lepturus) 

 is also well known to the Eskimos to be "mostly nocturnal in its 

 habits," and is generally caught during night. 



A favorite attitude of rest is to lie "with the body doubled up." 

 A spot by the side of a rock or in a rocky recess is chosen when it can 

 be had. If seaweeds abound about its lurking place it is so much 

 the more acceptable. If such are not readily accessible, however, 

 the bare ground may afford a resting place. 



Its natatory movements are said to be much like an eel's, although 



of course less sinuous on account of its stouter form; according to 



Smitt "the long soft body, tapering tail, and small caudal * * * 



probably render it a poor long-distance swimmer. Its movements, 



too, are slow." 



III. 



Old writers gave the wolffish a very bad character. Lacepede 

 charged that, "cruel as the shark, it works terrible havoc among its. 

 own kind, and displays the same voracity in the piscine world as the 

 wild beast from which it derives its name, among the defenceless 

 herds." Doubtless the fish's aspect as well as name led to the 

 inference. The structure, however, is not adapted for piscivorous 

 habits. The strong and projecting front teeth are chiefly used 

 and are efficient for picking or raking out from their coverts the 

 shells, crabs, and echinoderms lurking therein; the array of grinding 

 teeth in the roof and sides of the mouth for crushing them.'^ The power- 

 ful teeth and jaw muscles, while not the best armature for a fish-eating 

 animal, are admirably adapted, some for collecting, others crushing, 

 shells. "Of the power of the jaws," says Smitt, "one may convince 

 oneself by opening the stomach, which may be chock-full of crushed 

 thick-shelled mussels and other shellfish. It eats them in great 

 quantities, and the thin-walled intestine is often full of thin shells." 

 One of the earliest observers (Bellamy in 1843) found "the stomach 

 contained small crabs, Pecten opercularis, Fusus corneus, etc., all 

 fractured by the conical and flat sets of teeth prior to being swal- 

 lowed." But large drafts are also made on the thinner-shelled crusta- 

 ceans. According to W. Ramsay Smith (1890), "in the Firth of Forth 

 arthropods {Eupagurus, Eyas, Portunus, NepJirops, Crangon, Gala- 



« A comparison of the conchifragous Scisenids of America {Pogonias chromis and 

 Aplodinotus grunniens) is interesting as showing how the same function (shell-crushing) 

 may be effected in quite different ways. In the wolflBshes the shells are crushed as 

 soon as they enter into the mouth by the side teeth of the jaws and palate; in the drum- 

 fishes the jaws have no crushing teeth, and the palate no teeth at all, but the pharyn- 

 geal bones (hypopharyngeal and middle epipharyngeal) are enlarged (the former 

 consolidated) and paved with huge molar teeth. 



