GEN. LOPHIUS. 283 



coast of Australia, from which the tide ebbs to a great 

 distance, these fishes are so abundant, and so capable 

 of taking vigorous leaps, that those who have visited 

 the districts, have, at first sight, taken them for 

 birds. It is of an animal of this family that Ron- 

 delet reports that he had witnessed an individual 

 subsist for two entire days among the weeds on the 

 shore; and that this Angler seized by the feet a 

 young fox, which was feeding near it during the 

 night, and retained it in its clenched teeth till morn- 

 ing. The family is subdivided into four smaller 

 sections, and comprehends about fifty species, most 

 of which belong to the Caribbean and Indian seas : 



o 



there are not many in the Atlantic ; and only one 

 fully ascertained as appertaining to the British wa- 

 ters ; this belongs to the 



Gen. 45. LOPHIUS, which comprehends those 

 fishes whose heads are especially large in proportion 

 to the rest of their body, also broad, depressed, and 

 armed with spines ; the mouth is exceedingly cleft, 

 and armed with long conical teeth, situate upon the 

 jaws, palatines, vomer, and pharyngeals, but not on 

 the tongue : they have a large branchiostegous 

 membrane, supported by six rays, and covering 

 three branchial arches only. All the gill-covers, 

 except the preopercle, are hid among the muscles : 

 they have two dorsal fins, the first three rays of the 

 anterior apparently being carried forward in the 

 form of long filaments, some of which are termi- 

 nated by fleshy appendages. These filaments are 

 articulated by means of a bony ring upon a circle 



